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PRINCETON 



mttEumi 



OCXOBER, SOtli, 1850. 



m. 



CELEBRATION 

OF THE 

ONE HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSAEY 

OF THE 

IN CORPORATION 

/ OF THE 

TOWN OF PRINCETON, MASS. 

OCTOBEIi aOtli, 1839. 

INCLUDING THE ADDRESS 

OF 

HON. CHARLES THEODORE RUSSELL, 

THE POEM OF 
PROF. ERASTUS EVERETT, 

AND 

OTHER EXERCISES OF THE OCCASION. 



"He who regards not the memory and character of his ancestors, deserves to b*- 
forgotten by posterity." 



/ 



WORCESTER: 

TRANSCRIPT OFFICE, WM. R. HOOPER, PRINTER. 

1860. 



ACTION OF THE TOWN. 



Pursuant to a warrant issued by the Selectmen of the 
ToAvn, upon the petition of fifteen legal voters thereof, a 
town meeting was held at Boylston Hall, on the 22d day 
of September, 1859, at which meeting it was voted to cele- 
brate the one hundreth anniversary of the incorporation 
of the town, on the 20tli day of October next, with ser- 
vices and observances suitable to such an occasion. And 
the following persons were chosen a committee to make 
all necessary arrangements for the same, viz.: 

At Large. — George F. Folger, Addison Smith, John 
Brooks, Jr., Wilkes Roper, Charles A. Whittaker, George 
E. Pratt, Edward E. Hartwell, John C. Davis, Ivory Wil- 
der, Joseph M. Stewart. 

By Districts. — No. 1, Harlow Skinner; 2, Abram Eve- 
rett ; 3, William H. Brown ; 4, Otis Wood ; 5, Paul Gar- 
field; 6, George Mason; 7, Samuel Roper; 8, Artemas J. 
Brooks ; 9, William B. Goodnow ; 10, Joshua T. Everett. 

At a subsequent meeting of the town, held at Boylston 
Hall, on the 8th day of November, '' Voted, to publish in 
book form the exercises of the late Centennial Celebra- 
tion ;" and chose the following a committee to carry the 
same into effect : 

Committee. — Joshua T. Everett, Charles Russell, William 
B. Goodnow, Edward E. Hartwell, Albert C. Howe. 

An organization of the Committee of Arrangements 
was effected by the choice of William B. Goodnow, Chair- 
man, and Edward E. Hartwell, Secretary. Sub-committees 



were appointed, to whom special duties were assigned ; 
and the following persons were unanimously chosen as the 
officers of the day : 

PRESIDENT OF THE DAY. 

Hon. CHARLES RUSSELL. 

VICE PRESIDENTS. 

Hon. JOHN BROOKS, Dr. ALPHONSO BROOKS, 

ISRAEL EVERETT, JOSEPH MASON, 

CALEB S. MIRICK, SOLON S. HASTINGS, Esq., 

Dea. henry BOYLES, Dr. WARD N. BOYLSTON, 

EBENEZER smith, RUFUS DAVIS, 

JOHN G. IIOBBS, DANIEL DAVIS, 

MOSES GARFIELD, FREDERICK PARKER. 

TOAST MASTER. 

JOSHUA T. EVERETT. 

chief MARSHAL. 

WILLIAM B. GOODNOW. 

ASSISTANTS. 

HARLOW SKINNER, EDWARD E. HARTWELL, 

WILLIAM H. BROWN, GEORGE F. FOLGER, 

GEORGE E. PRATT, OTIS WOOD, 

JONAS B. BROWN, CHARLES T. MIRICK, 

JOHN BROOKS, Jr., ADDISON SMITH, 

ARTEMAS J. BROOKS. 

CHAPLAINS. 

Rev. HUMPHREY MOORE, D. D., Rev. DAVID 0. ALLEN, D. D, 



THE CELEBRATION. 



Princeton welcomed home her native and adopted sons, 
October 20th, 1859, to a festival long to be remembered, 
in commemoration of her one hundredth birthday. As a 
stand-point from which to look backward and forward, the 
occasion is deeply suggestive, and the exercises of the day 
were, in a very satisfactory degree, interesting and im- 
pressive. 

The weather was unusually cold for the season, yet 
warm hearts were ready to greet, and were as warmly 
greeted in return. A family gathering — scattered East 
and West, North and South — the good old grandmother 
could hardly expect to see all "who have gone out from 
her, but who are yet of her," present : but a very large 
number, from those whose whitened locks proclaimed 
them the friends of her earlier years, to those who could 
hardly lisp her name, were there, to exchange kindly salu- 
tations, to revive old, yet none the less pleasing, associa- 
tions, and unite in ascriptions of praise to the Father of 
Mercies, for giving so " goodly a heritage." 



OUT-DOOR DEMONSTRATIONS. 

The festivities of the day commenced with the firing of 
cannon, the parade of citizens, under the escort of the 
"Wachusett Cornet Band, and other public manifestations 
of rejoicing. The streets and many of the buildings on 
the hill were handsomely decorated, under the su))crin- 



tendence of Co]. Beals, of Boston. The Wachusett Hotel 
saluted visitors as they came up the hill, with the motto, 
over its portico, " We welcome you home," and the house it- 
self was profusely ornamented. Across the Common were 
suspended the flags of all nations, and the Union Congrega- 
tional Church was gaily decorated with the Colonel's most 
impressive combination of colors, while in the recess in 
front hung a full length portrait of "The Father of his 
Country." Over the pulpit was placed the motto, which 
told the whole story of the celebration : 

" Peinceton Incorpoeated Oct. 20th, 1759." 
and other appropriate memorial emblems and mottoes 
were displayed throughout the town. 



PROCESSION, 

At 10 o'clock A. M., a procession was formed on the 
Common, under the direction of the Chief Marshal, William 
B. Goodnow, and his aids, in the following order : 

Aid. Chief Marshal. Aid. 

Escort. 

Thirty of the Sons of Princeton. 

Music — Wachusett Cornet Band. 

President of the day, Orator and Poet. 

Chaplains, Vice Presidents and Invited Guests. 

Rutland Brass Band. 

Rutland delegation, under the direction of Col. 

Calvin G. Howe as Marshal. 

Citizens of Princeton and other towns. 

The boisterous weather made it necessary to repair to 
the church, (Rev. Wm. T. Briggs',) whither the procession 
was conducted, and where the chief exercises were held. 



EXERCISES AT THE CHURCH. 

When the large audience — filling both aisles and galle- 
ries to overflowing — had assembled, William B. Goodnow, 
Chief Marshal, called the meeting to order, and introduced 
the President of the day, Hon. Charles Russell, who, in 
coming forward, spoko briefly and in a congratulatory 
manner of the pleasant circumstances which had called 
them together ; regretting that they had not now the large 
and spacious church built by their fathers more than sixty 
years ago, but which had now passed away. Ho craved 
the indulgence of the audience while they made the best 
use of the accommodations they had. He then called at- 
tention to the exercises of the day, which were as follows : 

I. — Music by the Band. 

II. — A Voluntary by the Choir. 

III. — Reading of select portions of the Scriptures by Rev. Wm. T. Briggs. 

IV. — Prayer by Rev. Humphrey Moore, D. D., of Milford, N. II. 

V. — An original Hymn, composed for the occasion by Joseph W. Nye, of 

East Princeton, was sung by the Choir. 

n Y M N . 

Not as they met — those pioneers, 

One hundred years ago to-day, 
]Meet wo, as close those many years. 

Our tribute of respect to pay ; 
They met, a brave but feeble band, 
Where now a number great we stand. 

Here, where the savage loved to roam, 

Amid the dim old solitudes, 
Hath education found a home ; 

And echo now these "grand old woods," 
With music such as science brings, 
Where'er slic spreads her golden wings ! 

No longer dormant lay tho fields. 

Stirred by the farmer's clearing plough, 

The pasture wild a harvest yields, 
Rewarding well his sweaty brow ; 

And yearly doth the fruitful soil. 

Repay him for his days of toil I 



8 



And still with ever watchful e3'e, 

Our loved high priest, "Wachusett,'* stauds. 
While fruitful vales around him lie, 

Baptised in plenty at his hands ; 
He waves his censor, and the gale, 
The fragrance beareth through the vale ! 

God of Creation ! bless us hero. 

As on this festal day Ave come ; 
Be Thou to guide us over near. 

And take us to Thy heavenly home 
When all our meetings here are o'er, 
To worship Thee forevermore. 

And when another hundred years. 
Have rolled upon their course sublime, 

When all our earthly joys and fears 
Have disappeared with fading time ; 

Here may our children's children meet, 

And joyfully this scene repeat ! 



After this, the following Oration was delivered by Hon. 
diaries T. Russell, of Boston. 



ORATION 

BY HON. CHARLES T. RUSSELL. 



One liundred years ago, to-day, the few and scattered 
dwellers about the base of Wachiisett, received from the 
Colonial Legislature, and the Royal Governor, the act 
which gave them a place and a name among the municipal 
corporations of Massachusetts. Here and now, upon the 
soil they settled and subdued, not far from the humble 
tavern where they held their first town meeting, we, their 
children, meet on the old and loved homestead, in joyful 
commemoration of the centennial birthday of our town. 

Gathering on this autumnal morning, at home and from 
abroad, not strangers nor the public, but townsmen, friends, 
fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters — a family circle, around 
the family fireside — at a family festival, our thoughts irre- 
sistibly turn to family matters. Here, on a Thanksgiving 
day, seated, as it were, on the settle, by the dear old chim- 
ney corner, while the dinner is cooking, cold and strange 
would it be, indeed, did we not talk of family history, with 
minuteness, even, of remembrance and incident. 

We come, at a mother's kindly call, with a child's filial 
heart, to meet her, dearer by every wrinkle time sets upon 
her brow, in her oion home. It is but the impulse of her 



10 

early instructions, tlie first warm greetings over, that we 
reverently bow before our Maker, at her knee, and with 
the earnestness of childhood, adopt its consecrated words, 
and 

Thank the goodness and the grace, 

That on our birth have smiled, 
And in these Christian days, 

Made each a free and haijjjy child. 

Rising from this grateful duty to other service, insensate 
should we be, did not our hearts, in this interview of filial 
and parental love, break forth in blessings many, and too 
strong, perhaps, for stranger ears, upon her who so kindly 
cared for our youth, and so sweetly smiles on our manhood. 

In our most public proceedings, to-day, we are but 
townsmen, in town meeting assembled. No article in our 
warrant authorizes any business but of immediate domestic 
concernment, and I should be instantly called to order by 
universal shout, were I to attempt to speak of aught but 
our own early history, being allowed, of course, to refer to 
those larger and more general events, which have entered 
into, modified and shaped it. 

Standing where our fathers stood a hundred years ago, 
removed from them by a century, the most stirring, active 
and marvellous, in its progress, history and developments, 
of any since the Christian era, we find our town sharing 
always in the general advance quite up to the standard of 
an agricultural and conservative community, still in all that 
is peculiar, as little changed as any in the Commonwealth. 
Yet how grand and striking the contrasts made by mere 
circumstances, the changes of time, and the progress of 
knowledge and events, between the days of them, the 
fathers, and us, the children. 

In the middle of the eighteenth century, the hostile 
warwhoop had ceased to be heard in the "wilderness 
country, beyond the Nashua," and around the Wachusett. 
Sholan no longer kept his royal seat, in sight from this hill, 
between the Washacums. Lancaster had risen from the 



11 

aslies ill which the Narragansett war had laid it. Worces- 
ter sent out no bodies of soldiery on the report that large 
numbers of Indians ^' hovered between it and Waclmsett 
Mountain." And yet of" the first settler in Princeton, the 
grandfather had been killed, and the father attacked by 
these same savages ; and the daughter, born as late as 1739, 
recollected to have gathered blueberries on this very hill 
with a file of soldiers for protection. Men, younger than 
many I now address, remembered the Indian fight in 
Sterling, and the burning of the church and last attacks 
at Lancaster — remembrances, events jtist then occurring, 
might well quicken and impress. 

But if the savages, as enemies, had retired, the forest 
was present. Looking from this eminence, on the 20th of 
October, 1759, the eye rested upon a wilderness, clothed 
in all the gorgeous beauty of a New England Autumn, 
— but unbroken in its whole extent save where some dis- 
tant pond glittered in the sunlight, or the curling smoke re- 
vealed the settler's dwelling, or the smouldering fires of 
the pioneer's clearing. Hubbardston, Sterling and Boyls- 
toii were not. Westminster was but a twin born sister. 
No roads threaded these primeval woods. And dweller 
found dweller, in traffic, mutual aid or social intercourse, 
by the bridle path and marked tree, escorted by an occa- 
sional wolf or growling bear. No mail — no weekly post- 
man, even, brought news from the inner world to these 
outside settlers. What they learned of the distant homes 
they had left awaij doion to Shreiosbur7j, Lancaster and 
Weston and Wate^ioivn, they gathered by chance visits, 
or the letter some friendly hand casually brought. The 
Boston Weekly Newspaper, which found its way occasion- 
ally to some of them, told them from time to time, of the 
stirring events transpiring around them, and in the distant 
country to which they owed allegiance. 

Our fathers were the subjects of Great Britain. The 
act which made them a town, and the warrant which called 
them together to organize it, were alike in the name of 



12 

the second George. Lig4itly, as iu their forest homes, their 
allegiance ordinarily sat npon them, — there was a peculiar 
significance to it just now. They were in the midst of 
sharing actively the first great contest for civil liberty on 
the continent. Their sovereign was its leader, and king and 
colonist, cemented by a common interest, alike uncon- 
scious of the fact, were laying broad and deep the founda- 
tion of future freedom. 

Hardly more than a century since, France, by military 
posts and possessions, had drawn a narrowing circle 
around the English Colonies, and, in a magnificent sweep, 
claimed jurisdiction from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to that 
of Mexico. On the Saguenay and Ottawa, amid the soli- 
tary grandeur of Niagara, at Champlain, and along the 
whole line of inland waters from Ontario to Michigan, the 
rude cross marked her faith, and the fleur de lis asserted 
her power. Her soldiery struggled with Washington for 
the beautiful basin of the Ohio. '' In the whole valley 
of the Mississippi, to its head springs in the Alleghanies, 
no standard floated but hers." The institutions of the 
middle ages and rising liberty confronted each other in the 
primeval forest and untrampled prairie. What race should 
people these vast solitudes, what language make them 
vocal, — feudalism or freedom, Catholicism or Protestant- 
ism, which should take root in this virgin soil, — these were 
the grand issues of that contest Washington opened at 
Great Meadows, and Wolfe closed at Quebec. 

Long before Marquette, La Salle and Hennepin had 
explored the Mississippi, from the falls of St. Anthony to 
its mouth, and reared along its solitary banks the arms 
of France. French forts were established at Champlain, 
Ontario, Niagara, Erie, and finally on the sources of the 
Ohio at Pittsburg, while the unbroken forests swarmed 
with their Indian allies, from the shores of the lakes to the 
frowning ramparts of Quebec. Massachusetts not long 
back had mourned French and savage inroads, of Avhich 
she dreaded the renewal, at points within our view to-day. 



.13 

Tliey had roused the peaceful Quaker spirit of Pennsyl- 
vania, and the more ardent vigor of Virginia and New 
York. The races approached, the lines were drawn, the 
posts taken, the crisis impended, and the rattle of Wash- 
ington's musketry in the western wilderness " broke the 
repose of the world," and, as has been well said, " began 
the battle, which was to banish from the soil and neighbor- 
hood of our republic the institutions of the middle age, 
and to inflict on them fatal wounds throughout the conti- 
nent of Europe." 

In 1750, the French and English Commissioners at Paris 
had failed to settle the boundaries of their North American 
territory b}^ negotiation. In 1754, Washington surren- 
dered at Fort Necessity. The year following, Massachu- 
setts troops secured Nova Scotia, and became associated 
with, if they did not incur, the infamy of removing the 
peaceful Acadians. Braddock, self-willed and impracticable, 
met his disastrous defeat in the forests of Fort Du Quesne. 
In 1756, war was finally declared between England and 
France, and the chivalric Montcalm assumed the French 
command in America. Pushing through the forest and 
along Lake Ontario, while Loudoun and Abercrombie lin- 
gered at Albany, ho captured the fort at Oswego, reared 
upon its ruins the cross, and by its side a j^illar, bearing 
the arms of France, and the inscription, '' Bring lilies with 
full hands." 

Flushed with success, the next year he descended the 
shores of Lake George upon Fort William Henry, with 
eight thousand French and Indians, where the gallant Monro 
maintained a death struggle, till half his guns were burst 
and his ammunition all expended. In August of that year, 
Massachusetts issued an order, " for all and every one of 
his Majesty's well affected subjects, able to bear arms, to 
repair to Fort Edward, on the Hudson, to serve with Gen. 
Webb, for the relief of Fort William Henry, which still 
stands out fighting against a large and numerous body of 
the enemy." Already the regiments of the counties of 



14 

Hampshire and Worcester bad gone forward to the relief 
of Monro, and, with their associates in arms, but for the 
inefficiency ot Webb, might have saved ns the sad disaster 
of that broken-hearted officer's surrender. 

Just tlien, in the language of another, " The English had 
been driven from every cabin in the basin of the Ohio. 
Montcalm had destroyed every vestige of their power 
within that of the St. Lawrence.'' " Of the North Ameri- 
can Continent, the French claimed, and seemed to possess, 
twenty parts in tAventy-five, leaving four only to Spain and 
but one to Britain." England herself, straining every 
nerve to exhaustion, to aid the great protestant power, 
then developing itself under Frederic, — borne down by an 
incompetent ministry, which distrusted the colonies, and 
was repudiated by the people, seemed incapable of turning 
the tide of American affairs. Massachusetts, through all 
her borders, trembled for her security^ and the dwellers in 
her more unsettled interior,, recalled, with fearful forebod- 
ings, savage inroads within their personal recollection, and 
from onuses again active. 

At this moment of disaster and gloom, England's great 
commoner assumed the guidance of her counsels, and 
accomplished some of the brightest glories of her history. 
Entering permanently upon his administration in 1757, 
challenging the support of the colonies by a generous 
confidence, throwing to the winds the fears, and boldly 
reversing the maxims of his predecessors, he matured and 
executed those plans, which crowned the first great Amer- 
ican conflict with the entire subjugation of French Amer- 
ica. 

Animated by his justice, and their confidence in him, the 
Colonies rallied at once to his support. Massachusetts sent 
seven thousand troops to the army of that year, and had en- 
rolled nearly one-third of all her effective men. In July, Am- 
herst, seconded by Wolfe, captured Louisburg, and in the 
same month the gallant Howe fell at Lake George, and 
Abercrombie retreated, disastrously repulsed by Montcalm 



15 

from Ticocderoga. In November, Forbes, prompted and 
sustained bv the energetic spirit of Washington, took Fort 
Duquesne, and as his country's flag rose over it, gave it 
the name of that country's protector. The persevering 
Bradstreet rescued Abercrombie's division from entire 
disaster by the subjugation of Fort Frontenac, on Lake 
Ontario. 

In 1759, in the steady march of events, Niagara, Ticon- 
deroga and Crown Point were taken by the English, and 
the French driven back upon the St. Lawrence. Montcalm 
repaired to Quebec, where his sagacious mind saw the 
decisive blow must be met, and awaited it in fearless but 
foreboding self-possession. On the 13th of September it 
fell, and Wolfe, noblest and bravest of British officers, over 
unprecedented obstacles, achieved, with his life, on the 
plains of Abraham, the first decisi\:e victory of American 
liberty on the battle field. Our fathers, in their humble 
homes in the forest, received, with their act of incorpora- 
tion, the grateful tidings just then sending a thrill of exul- 
tant joy throughout the Colonies, and which emancipated 
them from the further power or fear of French or Indian. 

Such were the times and scenes amid which our fathers 
lived. Such the stirring circumstances and grand events 
transpiring around them, — not distant and remote and to 
them indifferent, — but upon their very frontier, and threat- 
ening home and fireside. They shared the duties and 
dangers of the field, and in almost every household, nearly 
or more remotely mourned its losses. One has only to 
run over the muster rolls of Chandler, Ruggles and others 
to see how largely all this region of Worcester County 
participated in the French wars, and how largely they 
suffered from them. It is a somewhat curious and inter- 
esting fact that the first settler of Princeton made himself 
bankrupt by a purchase of cattle for the supply of the 
British army in Canada. 

I have detained you longer, perhaps, than I ought, 
especially after my promises in the beginning, with these 



16 

larger and more general events. I have done so because 
occurring just at tlie period of their incorporation, thej 
illustrated the times in which our fathers lived, enter into 
their domestic history, affected their homes and firesides, 
and were the familiar subjects which filled up the talks of 
their winter evenings. 

But it is quite time I should turn to history purely our 
own. In doing so, I desire to say that the short time 
allowed me for preparation has not permitted me to make 
all the investigations I could desire — or even to complete 
all upon which I have entered. I have, however, found 
several valuable papers and maps, that I supposed were 
not in existence, and which throw much light upon our 
early history, and correct some errors in regard to it. 

The territory composing our town, although not settled 
or incorporated till a, comparatively late period, was yet 
early known and somewhat explored. Wachusett, as the 
highest land in the State, became not only an object of 
interest but a landmark for all the surrounding country. 
Centuries before a white man set foot upon it, such was it 
to its savage possessors and frequenters. Could its ven- 
erable summit speak to us of all it has witnessed, while for 
ages it looked 

" Upon the green and rolling forest tops, 
And down into the eeerets of the glens," 

before the eye of civilized being rested upon it, what a 
history might it unfold ! How much of Indian life and 
action, love and hate, fidelity and treachery, worship, 
cruelty, decay and extinction ! What tribes have held its 
sovereignty, what wild tenants thronged its precincts, 
what scenes of peace or war it has witnessed, how long it 
stood in solitary grandeur before human foot pressed its 
rocky soil, — what captives have been tortured or released 
at its base, — what assaults and murders planned upon its 
sides, what settlements marked and devoted from its top. 



17 

who gave it the name, you, with such good taste, refuse 
to change, and witnessed its baptism, far back 

" When the gray chief and gifted seer, 
Worshipped the God of thunders here." 

We may interrogate it, but we shall interrogate it in vain. 
Everything that has transpired on and around it, from the 
lighting of the first Indian fire in its forests, to the last 
tale of love whispered in the pale-faced maiden's ear, at 
sunset, on its summit, ia sacredly locked in its faithful 
bosom, as arrayed in the splendor of its autumnal robes, 
it looks down, in serene and silent majesty upon our ser- 
vices to-day. 

Were those venerable sides now to break their long 
silence, and essay to speak, dead and living would join in 
equal and earnest protest, from the first mountain Hiawa- 
tha, who there laid the red deer at his Minnehaha's feet, to 
the last Summer visitor who there breathed words of love 
to his Genevieve, till she too 

" Said and blushed to say it, 
I will follow you, my husband." 

And 

*' Hand in hand, they went together, 
Through the woodland and the meadow." 

The first reference to Wachusett, unless we adopt the 
suggestion that it is the hill laid down by John Smith in 
his map in 1616, is by Gov. Winthrop, in 1632. On the 
27th of January, of that year, " the Governor and some 
company with him," says his journal, "went up Charles River 
about eight miles above Watertown," where " they went 
up a very high rock, from whence they might see all over 
Neipnett, and a very high hill due west about forty miles 
off." Probably this is the first specific mention of any 
portion of the territory of Worcester County, as its wil- 
3 



18 

derness was never traversed by civilized man, until the 
expedition toward Connecticut, in 1635. 

In 1643, Governor Winthrop again says, "At this court, 
Nashacowam and Wassamagoin, two sachems near the 
great hill to the west, called (Warehasset,) Wachusett, 
came into the court, and, according to their former tender 
to the Governor, desired to be received under our protec- 
tion and government, upon the same terms that Pomhom 
and Saconoco were ; so we, causing them to understand the 
articles, and all the ten commandments of God, and they, 
freely assenting to all, they were solemnly received, and 
then presented the court with twenty-six fathom more of 
wampum, and the court gave each of them a coat of two 
yards of cloth and their dinner ; and to them and their 
men, every one of them a cup of sack at their departure ; 
so they took leave and went away very joyful." 

At this time the Nipmucks owned and occupied most of 
the region now making the south part of Worcester 
County. How far their domain extended, and what were 
the precise relations between them and the Nashaways, 
who held the territory along the Nashua and about the 
Wachusett, is uncertain The sachem of the latter was 
Sholan, or Shawman, who had his royal residence, if that 
term may be applied to a wigwam and corn patch, on the 
neck of land between the Washacums, in our sight to-day. 
To his barbaric dominion our territoiy was subject. 
During this year, upon his invitation. King and others of 
Watertown, purchased of him a tract ten miles by eight on 
the Nashua, and began the settlement of Lancaster. This 
preceded by many years any other town in Worcester 
County, and was for a half century the nearest settlement 
to Wachusett. 

In February, 1676, the Indians of this region, among 
whom were those who had received the pious instruction 
of Eliot and Gookin, instigated by Philip, joined in the 
Narragansett war. Assembling in large numbers, they 
made the disastrous attack upon Lancaster, so familiar to 



19 

us from the simple and touching narrative of Mrs. Row- 
landson. " After many weary steps," says this trusting 
Christian woman, returning from sufierings and wanderings 
in the wilderness, " we came to Wachusett." It would 
seem that she remained herewith a body of Indians during 
the attack upon Sudbury, and she describes the pow-wow 
preliminary to that assault. After this, she says, three or 
four miles distant from the mountain, ''they built a great 
wigwam, big enough to hold an hundred Indians, which 
they did in preparation to a great day of dancing." '' They 
began now to come from all quarters against the merry 
dancing day." This is the first public celebration within 
the limits or vicinage of our town of which we have any 
history. For a curious account of the services, I must 
refer you to the lady's narrative. 

Meantime, Mr. Hoar had come to secure her ransom, and 
we have a statement of some diplomatic social intercourse, 
which rather unfavorably reflects upon our Indian prede- 
cessors. ** In the morning," says Mrs. Rowlandson, '' Mr. 
Hoar invited the Sagamores to dinner ; but when we 
went to get it ready, we found they had stolen the greater 
part of the provisions Mr. Hoar had brought, and we ma}'- 
see the wonderful power of God, in that one passage, in 
that when there was such a number of them together, and 
so greedy of a little good food, and no English there, but 
Mr. Hoar and myself, that it was a wonder they did not 
knock us on the head, and take what we had." 

Here the Indians called their General Court which finally 
consented to release Mrs. Rowlandson. 

Shortly after, the General Court of the Province, sent 
Seth Perry as a special messenger to them, and by him a 
letter addressed to " The Sagamore about Wachusetts, 
Phillip, John, Sam, Washaken, old Queen and Pomliom." 
It would seem from this that Mr. Hoar brought letters 
from them, suing for peace, for it speaks of receiving their 
letters, and adds, " In your letter to us you say you desire 
not to be hindered by our men in your planting, promising 



20 

not to do damage to our towns. If you will send us home 
all the English prisoners, it will bo a great testimony of a 
true heart in you to peace." 

The same year, in a letter to the Council at Hartford, the 
General Court say, that it was their intention to have left 
a sufficient garrison at Sudbury and Marlboro', and " have 
drawn their forces to visit, had it been feasible, the head- 
quarters of the enemy at Wachusetts ;" but divine Provi- 
dence ordered it that their forces " by weakness and wants 
could not attayne that end." They add, we " hope by the 
first of June to be out with five hundred horse and foot and 
Indians, on the visiting of the ennemye's headquarters at 
Wachusetts, taking it in the march to Hadley." 

At this time, beyond doubt, our town was the head- 
quarters of the hostile Indians. 

In 1681, Mr. Stoughton and Joseph Dudley were ap- 
pointed by the Court to negotiate with the Nipmucks for 
their territory. In February of the next year they report 
that they have purchased of black James, one tract for thirty 
pounds and a coat, and for fifty pounds, another tract fifty 
miles long and twenty wide. '^ The northern part towards 
Wachusett " they say " is still unpurchased, and persons 
yet scarcely to be found meet to be treated with 
thereabouts." 

Four years later, Henry Willard, Joseph Rowlandson, 
Joseph Foster, Benjamin Willard and Cyprian Stevens made 
the purchase of Puagastion, Fompamamey, Wananapan, 
Sassawannow and Qualipunit of *' a certain tract of lands, 
Medows, Swamps, Timbers, Etervils, containing twelve 
miles square," and known as Naquag. For this they paid 
twenty-three pounds — which is much higher than the Prov- 
ince paid for the Nipmuck territory, four years before. 
Although the price is but eighty cents a square mile, it 
seems to have been quite up to the market, as fixed by the 
sale of " adjoining lots." How the grantees discovered the 
title of these Indian grantors, which escaped the vigilance 
of the Provincial Commissioners, or what the title was 



21 

does not appear. The savages backed their title with very 
ample covenants of seizin, and set their marks to warranties 
of the strongest form. 

This purchase included what is now Rutland, Hubbard- 
ston, Barre, Oakham, a part of Paxton, and the larger half 
of Princeton. Its northerly line ran nearly a mile north 
of where we are now assembled, across the whole of the 
town, to " Greate Wachusett," excluding, however, that 
mountain. The Indian deed was probably worthless till 
confirmed by the General Court, and it seems to have been 
so regarded. We hear nothing of it from its date till 1713. 
During the intervening period, the Indians possessed or 
frequented the territory. As late as 1704, an attack was 
made upon Lancaster, and the Church burnt, and in 1707 
the Indian fight, as it is called, occurred in Sterling. 
Occasional ruptures and murders continued up to 1710. 

As late as 1725, Capt. Brintnall was ordered to surround 
and protect with his company, the meadows in Rutland, 
while the farmers gathered their hay. 

In 1714, the General Court, upon the application of the 
sons and grandsons of Maj. Simon Willard, and others, con- 
firmed to them the land described in the Indian deed, pro- 
vided there should be sixty families settled thereon in seven 
years, and " sufficient lands reserved for the use of a gospel 
minister and school." On the 14th of April of that year, 
the proprietors held their first meeting, and the Indian deed 
was put upon record. In 1716, six miles square, constitu- 
ting the present town of Rutland, was set off for the settlers 
required by the condition of the confirmation, and meas- 
ures taken to secure them. The other portions of the ter- 
ritory were soon after divided into wings or quarters. Of 
these the east wing constitutes the southerly and larger 
part of Princeton. 

There are three plans of this Naquag or Rutland pur- 
chase, on file in the archives of the Commonwealth, at the 
State House. The last is a very accurate one, presented by 
Rev. Thomas Prince and others, a committee of the propri- 



22 

etors, on the occaeion of asking the grant of a land tax in 
1749. Upon this the several wings or quarters are all laid 
down. The east wing is a parallelogram nearly, all its lines 
being perfectly straight, the east and west each eleven hun- 
dred and fifty rods, the south sixteen hundred and ninety 
rods, and the north sixteen hundred rods. Its area variSs 
somewhat on these and the later plans, a fact not surprising 
in those days of liberal allowance " for sags of the chain." It 
contained about eleven thousand and seven hundred acres, 
and the north line separating it from the Province lands, then 
unsurveyed and extending far beyond, ran straight from 
the south-east corner of what was subsequently known as 
the letter M lot, to the extreme south-west edge of Wa- 
chusett. The Meeting-House Hill was then called Turkey 
Hill, and this line ran along the depression between the two 
Wachusetts, where the road now passes. 

This tract remained in common, neither surveyed nor 
explored, until 1718, when it was divided by the proprietors 
into forty-eight farms, of two hundred and thirty-seven 
acres each. At this time there were thirty -three propri- 
etors, and at a meeting in Boston, November 5, of that year, 
one of these farms was assigned to each by lot. The three 
meadow lots. Pout Water, Wachusett, and Dead Meadow, 
were reserved for common use. Twelve lots, marked by 
letters from A to M, were also reserved, eleven for the 
proprietors, the other " for the first ordained minister of 
Rutland." The full list of the proprietors, with the lot of 
each, is recorded in their records. 

The lettered lots were owned in common until September 
24th, 1734, when, at a meeting of the proprietors at the 
Royal Exchange Tavern, Boston, these lots, together with 
the "gores and gussets," as the records have it, were divided. 
At the same meeting, it was voted that sixty-three acres 
" in lot No. A, (this included the Meeting-House Hill,) not 
having been set off to any of the proprietors, by reason 
of the brokenness of it, be granted to Rev. Mr. Thomas 
Prince, in consideration of the great care and labor he has 



23 

taken in calculating and computing the divisions above 
mentioned, and other good services performed to the 
proprietors." 

In November, 1736, the Wachusett, Pout Water and Dead 
Meadow lots were divided, in the division, one acre of 
meadow being " valued as three acres of upland." Thus, 
the whole territory became subdivided and passed to indi- 
viduals. Of these the Rev. Mr. Prince, as the proprietor 
of five shares, was the largest owner, although he does 
not appear to have been a proprietor at the division in 
1718. Probably still further purchases were made by him 
before 1759. 

The northerly and remaining portion of the town, 
comprising at its incorporation, seven thousand two hun- 
dred and eighty-three acres, is composed of several dis- 
tinct grants, the history of which time does not permit 
me to give in detail. The largest and most important 
was made to the towns of Weston and Watertown. Its 
circumstances and date have been inaccurately stated 
heretofore, as I find by the original documents, to which I 
have recently had access. 

In 1651, Watertown, then embracing Weston, was 
involved in a controversy with Sudbury, as to boundaries, 
which the General Court settled in favor of Sudbury. At 
the same time it passed an order that " Water Toune shall 
have two thousand ackers of land laid out nere Assabeth 
River, in respect of such land as was wanting to them, 
which was granted them formerly by this Court to be the 
bounds of their toune." 

For some reason, this grant never took effect, or was 
never located. In 1728, Watertown and Weston, which had 
then been incorporated, petitioned to have it revived ; and in 
June of that year, the General Court granted to those towns 
two thousand acres, to be located in any unappropriated 
lands of the Province. In November it was selected, sur- 
veyed, and a plan returned to the General Court. In this it 
is described as "in tlie unappropriated land, joining to the 



24 

Great Watchusett Hill, bounded south.westerly by Rutland' 
line of their township, every other way by Province land." 
This tract ran on Rutland line eight hundred and forty 
rods, or a little more than two and a half miles. Its lines 
are all strait except the west, which is very daintily deflected' 
to exclude the mountain, and at the same, include all the 
valuable land at its base. Wachusett was no favorite with 
the land seekers, who alike closed their inhospitable lines 
against it, thrusting it into cold exclusion, till some enter- 
prising surveyor should bring it in, by a gigantic sag of 
the chain, or some masterly deduction. 

This tract, commencing at a point on the line of Rutland 
East Wing, a little south-easterly of the Whitney Hill, ex- 
tended to East Princeton, including a part of that village, 
and thence over, or to the north of Pine Hill, to the base 
of Wachusett, and thence along this to the Rutland line. 
It was known as the Watertown Farm, and is usually so 
called in public documents of the time. It was sold by 
the towns to proprietors, and by them divided into farms 
of equal value. 

Another large grant of fifteen hundred acres was made 
to Thomas Plaisted. This tract is usually called the Pot- 
ash Farm, in the public records. When granted, or for 
what purpose, I have been unable to ascertain as yet. It 
seems that Plaisted did not fulfill the conditions of the 
grant, for in 1760, the General Court directed William 
Richardson to demand of Timothy Mosman possession of 
the "fifteen hundred acres granted Plaisted on certain condi- 
tions which were not fulfilled by him." In 1761, they sent a 
committee to prevent and prosecute the encroachments of 
Lancaster upon this farm — that town, then including Ster- 
ling, claiming some part of it to be within her bounds. In 
1762, an attempt was made to sell this, a farm of eighty 
acres west of it, and the Wachusett, at auction, putting 
them up at a limited minimum price. The same year, Ezra 
Taylor, as a committee, came up and run the lines of the 
Potash Farm, and reported that he found the most valuable 



25 

part of the timber cut, and adds, " I can't find out any 
person who has done it, except one Timothy Mosman, who 
was then in possession." 

In 1764, the General Court, on the last day of its session, 
granted the farm to Gen. Timothy Ruggles, the speaker, 
" in testimony of their grateful sense of the important ser- 
vices he rendered his country during the late war." 

Besides these larger, there were various grants to indi- 
viduals. In 1729, three hundred acres to Rev. Joseph 
Willard, of Rutland, and two hundred to Benjamin Muzzy. 
In 1732, four hundred to Rev. Benjamin Allen, and two 
hundred, in 1733, to Joseph Stevens, and one hundred and 
twenty to Joshua Wilder, Jr., in 1743. There were also 
the Blagrow and the Mayhew farms, and there was included 
in the town at the incorporation, a considerable area of 
Province land, of which the mountain was part. 

As early as 1734, some votes were passed by the Rutland 
proprietors, in reference to "■ bringing forward settlements 
in the East "Wing," but none were made. The first settle- 
ment in Princeton was not upon this territory, nor upon 
the Watertown farm, but by an enterprising pioneer upon 
a grant he obtained from the Province. This settlement, I 
think, from evidence in my possession, must have been 
made three or four years later than has been supposed. 
Joshua Wilder, Jr., has been generally understood to have 
been the first settler. He was the grandson of Capt. 
Nathaniel Wilder, of Lancaster, a man of some celebrity 
in his time, and grandson of the elder Nathaniel, who was 
killed in one of the Indian attacks upon that town. He 
commenced, and for many years occupied, the farm more 
recently owned by the late Peabody Houghton, and has 
been generally stated to have settled there as early as 
1739. But I find on the files at the State House, a petition 
from him to the General Court at the May session in 1742, 
wherein he sets forth, '' That the distance between Lan- 
caster and a new town called Nichewaug is about twenty- 
five miles. That about ten miles west of Lancaster Meet- 
4 



26 

ing-House there is a track of Province land, which contains 
about one hundred and twenty acres, lying between land 
formerly granted to Mr. Plaisted and Allen, and a farm 
called Blagrows farm, which lys out of the bounds of any 
Town." 

" That your petitioner, though a poor man, yet he 
humbly apprehends he hath the character of an Honest 
and Laborious man, and is minded to settle himself and 
family thereon." 

'' That, therefore, he is very desirous of obtaining a grant 
of said land on such conditions as may be consistent with 
your Excellency's and Honorable wisdom, on as easy terms 
as may be, and should he obtain it, he apprehends it would 
be of great service to people travelling from Lancaster to 
the new towns now settling westward, to have a house to 
depart to in their travelling." 

Upon this petition, the General Court, April 7th, 1743, 
ordered that the land be granted, provided the petitioner 
" does within one year have a good and convenient house 
built thereon for the accommodation of Travellers, and 
have ten acres thereof cleared and brought to English 
grass or plowing within four years, and that he dwell 
thereon with his family, or have one other good family 
dwell thereon." 

This grant must have been the farm on which Wilder set- 
tled. If so, he came here in 1743, and not 1739. I presume 
this was the first settlement in town, and such would be 
the natural inference from the statements of Wilder's peti- 
tion, and the reasons and conditions upon which the grant 
was made. Nishewaug, Petersham, was being settled at 
this time, and from its frontier and exposed situation, was 
an object of interest to the government, and it is stated by 
the historian of Worcester County, that •' there were no 
settled towns nearer than Lancaster on the east, and Rut. 
land to the south-east, and Brookfield to the south, except 
a few new settlers in Hardwick." The first settlement of 
our town had thus something of public interest about it, 



27 

and was in aid of the pioneer emigrants to the then nearest 
West. 

Mr. Wilder occupied his farm till after the incorporation, 
when, having lost his property by a speculation in cattle 
for the supply of the army in Canada, he sold out and 
removed to Cold Spring, now Belchertown, where he died 
in 1762. 

The next settler, and the first in the Rutland part, was 
Abijah Moore, who began the farm, now occupied by 
Major Joseph A. Read, in 1750. Here Mr. Moore, who 
subsequently became a leading man in town and church, 
shortly after opened a tavern, the first in the place, unless 
Mr. Wilder's wilderness station had that character. Prob- 
ably both had reference to the same wants of settlers 
beyond. 

The third inhabitant was Mr. Cheever, who occupied 
the Cobb Farm, in the southerly part of the East Wing. 
The next settlement was in the extreme north-west, 
between Wachusett and the pond, on the farm more 
recently occupied by Luther Goodnow, This was made 
by Robert Keyes, who came there from Shrewsbury. I 
think it quite probable Mr. Keyes was connected with the 
first settler b}'^ marriage, as Mr. Wilder's wife was the 
daughter of Major John Keyes of Shrewsbury. 

These early settlements were in opposite extremes of 
the town. Each was distant from its nearest neighbor 
some two miles, and tAvo double that. Two were in Rut- 
land, and two upon Province land, not in any town or 
district. 

Mr. Keyes was somewhat noted as a hunter, and this 
character may have guided his choice of a locality in the 
woods, under the Wachusett. His settlement became more 
notorious than the others, by the fact that, shortly after, he 
lost a daughter, who strayed into the woods, following her 
older sisters who had gone to the neighboring pond. The 
country, for many miles round, was I'allied to search the 
forest for her, and the pond was dragged ; but no traces 



28 

or tidings of her were ever bad. It was generally believed 
then and since that she was carried off by Indians. 

I have recently found upon the files of the General 
Court, a petition from Mr. Keyes, presented in 1765, in 
which he says, that "in ye year of 1755 he lost one of his 
children, and was supposed to be taken by the Indians and 
carried to Canada. When it was first lost, it was appre- 
hended to be in the woods, wandering about, and your 
petitioner was at great cost and trouble in searching the 
woods for it, but to no good purpose ; after this, he hears 
that it was at Canada, and that he could get further infor- 
mation thereof at Porch Mouth, in New Hampshire ; on 
hearing that he went there, and also sent to Canada after- 
wards. He advertised said child in the New York papers j 
upon that he had an account of such child being among the 
Mohawks, and determined to go after his child last Fall,, 
but has hitherto been prevented by reason of sickness 
and deaths in his family. And the loss he hath been at in 
searching for said child hath been so great, being about 
one hundred pounds lawful money, that he is not able to 
bear it, being in a new plantation ; and as there is within 
sixty rods of his door some Province land lying on ye 
Watchusetts hill, which would be some advantage to him, 
providing he could have it; therefore, your petitioner 
humbly prays this Honorable Court to take his case in your 
compassionate consideration, and make him a grant of ye 
easterly half of said Wachusett hill." 

The only record I find in regard to this petition is the 
indorsement " negatived," in the handwriting of the Sec- 
retary. It is interesting, however, as the father's account 
of the searches for his lost daughter. The probabilities 
are this child perished in the woods or pond. 

The settlements subsequent to 1751, must have been 
rapid. The next in time was that of Oliver Davis, upon 
Clark Hill, near the present line of Hubbardston. Mr. 
Davis was a man of enterprise, as well as mechanical skill, 
and having purchased a tract of one thousand acres, partly 



29 

in this town and partly in Hubbardston, lie built the first 
saw and grist mill in this immediate region, near where 
the Valley Village Mills now stand. 

In June, 1758, there were thirty families in town, as 
appears by the petition of Benjamin Houghton and others, 
— then presented for an act of incorpoi'ation. In addi- 
tion, there must have been some score or two of hard- 
handed yeomen, hewing away with might and main at the 
primeval forest, to get a clearing and a log house, for the 
blushing helpmeet they instantly thereupon, every one of 
them, intended to bring behind him, on a pillion, to these 
sylvan shades and this mountain home. Why, the dullest 
ear in the woods could have detected every man chop- 
ping under these tender circumstances, by the quicker 
stroke and merrier ring of his axe, or the smarter or more 
fantastic whistle following each crash that took one from 
the obstacles between him and his happiness, while in 
the distant towns below, hearts watched as anxiously for 
tidings of " the men about the Watchusetts," as did ever 
Governor Leverett and his General Court, in the days of 
" Sagamore Philip, John, Sam, Washaken, Old Queen and 
Pomhom." 

Excellent notions had the sons as well as the fathers, in 
those days: First freedom; then an axe ; then a clearing; 
then a house ; then a wife to make it home ; a bible to 
make it Christian ; honest loving labor to give it comfort, 
and thenceforth every thing went as regular as clock- 
work, from the care of the dairy to the christening of the 
children. 

That a goodly number of these single men were here, 
is indicated by the fact that seventy-four names of persons, 
who represent themselves as "proprietors and inhabitants," 
appear upon the papers connected with the incorporation, 
while there were but thirty families. 

Many of you may be surprised to learn, that the incor- 
poration was not obtained until after a severe and pro- 
tracted struggle of more than a 3"ear, between the North 



30 

and South, or in modern language, of quite a sectional 
character. I have recently found most of the documents 
which this struggle originated, and they furnish much 
valuable information in regard to the town at that period. 

June 8, 1758, Benjamin Houghton and others, residents 
of the Farms, and the northerly part of the Wing, presented 
a petition, praying ^ that '' certain farms near the great 
Watchusetts Hill, and contiguous to Rutland East Wing, 
containing a track of about six miles by three, together 
with the East Wing of Rutland, containing about a like 
quantity, upon Avhich there are about thirty families already 
settled, be erected into a township." Upon this petition 
leave was granted to bring in a bill ; but nothing more Avas 
done until the next session, in January 1759. A petition 
was then presented by Eliphalet Howe and others, inhabit 
tants of the Bast Wing, praying that the Wing alone, might 
be made a town. Upon this petition the Council ordered 
notice, but the House summarily dismissed it, and with it 
the previous one of Houghton. 

The succeeding February, Houghton and others again 
petitioned, setting forth " that said farms and Wing being 
incorporated into a Distinct Township, will make a very 
good one, and do not contain the contents of six miles 
square, and that said Wing, by itself, will not be able to 
defray the charges of building a meeting-house, settling a 
minister, and maintaining the Gospel among them, and 
making roads, without an intolerable heavy tax ; " that the 
farms are not able alone to meet such charges, and " cannot 
be accommodated to any other town, and will be forever 
disobliged if not laid to said wing, and both together will 
find the charges of a new settlement heavy enough ; " that 
" both wing and farms are at present under very difficult 
circumstances, by the extreme distance and badness of the 
roads to the pubhc Worship of God in any other Town." 
They add, " we can but seldom attend it, and in the winter 
season are quite shut up, which circumstances are not only 
distressing to the present Inhabitants, but very Discour- 



31 

aging to new Settlers. Wherefore, the humble prayer of 
your petitioners is, that said wing and farms may be 
incorporated as above-said." 

This petition was signed by forty-five persons, of Avhom 
twenty-four resided upon '• The Farms," and twenty-one 
upon the '' Wing." 

Notice was ordered by the General Court, to be given 
" to the Proprietors and Inhabitants of the East Wing of 
Rutland," by inserting the substance of the petition in 
some one of the Boston Newspapers, to show cause if any 
they had, at the next session of the court, why the prayer 
of the petition should not be granted. 

The notice given was defective in form, and Eliphalet 
Howe and others, by memorial, took adv^antage of this. 
The petition was thereupon postponed to the May session, 
and new notice ordered and given. 

At this session, Joseph Ev^eleth and twenty-one others, 
" Inhabitants and Proprietors of the East Wing of Rutland," 
sent in a long memorial, " in answer to the petition" of 
Houghton and others, and praying " that said wing might 
be incorporated into a Town or District." In this they 
say, " j^our memorialists beg leave to say, that they are 
very sure that Every Impartial man that is acquainted with 
the Situation and Circumstances of said Wing and farms 
will Readily say that the wing of itself, will make a much 
better settlement than if the ftxrms are laid to said wing, 
for this Reason, Because the farms in General, are some of 
the poorest land, perhaps, that there is in the Province, 
Lyes in a very bad form, and although the said Proprietors 
and Inhabitants of said farms, did exhibit a plan to your 
Excellency and Honors, that appeared that said farms lay 
in a very good form to be adjoyned to said Wing. Your 
memorialists beg leave to say, that they are very sure that 
said plan is not true, — But done, as they apprehend, to 
Deceive your Excellency and Honors, and as almost all the 
Best of the land in said wing. Lyes on the Southerly side 
of it, and the Chief of the Inhabitants living on that Side; 



32 

and not only so, but the land on the northerly side Never 
will admit of Half so good a Settlement as the Southerly 
side will ; and if the farms should be annexed to said wing, 
it would Gary the Center of the wing and farms to the 
very Northerly side of said Wing, which would oblige the 
two-thirds of the Inhabitants always to travel Three or 
Four miles to meeting, and the great Difficulty that your 
memorialists must be put to in making Highways and 
Building Bridges through a very Rough, Rocky Country, 
will Burden them so, that they had rather have one-quarter 
of their Real estate Taken from them, than to be obliged 
to Joyne with those People, where they are certain they 
shall always live in Trouble and Difficulty. And as the 
said wing contains better than twelve thousand acres of 
Land, and is capable of making a very good Settlement of 
itself, and cost your memorialists a very great price ; and if 
your Excellency and Honors should annex the Farms to 
the wing, we apprehend it would be taking away the 
Rights of your memorialists, and giving it to those that 
have no just claim to it." They therefore pray that the 
petition of Houghton and others may be dismissed, and 
that the wing maybe incorporated into a Town or District. 

This petition and memorial was referred to a Joint Com- 
mittee of the General Court, who gave the parties a 
hearing, and reported, '' That in order to have a clear 
understanding of the sundry things mentioned in said 
Petition, that a Committee be appointed and sent by this 
Honorable Court to view the Farms and the East Wing 
above mentioned, and Report to the Court, the charge of 
said Committee to be borne as this Honorable Court shall 
hereafter order." This Report was accepted, and Gama- 
liel Bradford, Mr, Witt, and Colonel Gerrish were appointed 
the Joint Committee. 

This Committee had a view and further hearings, and 

there are sundry papers on file presented to them. 

Among these are the two following of some interest to us : 

"October ye 6th, 1759. — This may certifie whomsoever it may Concern, 



33 

that the Land Between Leominster, Leuningburg and Narrowgaseett No. 

2, and as far as the Potash Farm, is Chiefly uninhabitable, and very bad 

land, and no waye fit but for a very few Inhabitants. 

Test our hands : 

EZRA HOUGHTON, 
JONATHAN WILDER. 

Lancester, October 7th, 1759. 
These may certifie that the Lands north of the farm Called Potash Farm, 
betwixt Leominster and Narragansett, is Generally Rough Land, and will 
admit of but few Good Settlements. Atts : 

JOSEPH WILDER, 
JOHN BENNIT. 

N. B. — The above subscribers were the gentlemen that layed out the 
above-mentioned Lands and assisted in Dividing them." 

I apprehend much of this controversy turned upon the 
so often vexing question to towns of the centre. 

The final result was, that on the 20th of October, one 
hundred years ago, the act which occasions our festivities, 
received the consent of the Royal Governor, and incorpo- 
rated the town with precisely the same bounds asked for by 
Houghton and others, and according to the plan presented 
by them. Looking back through all this period, over our 
history, not one here doubts, that in putting these two 
sections together in a well-shaped and substantial town, the 
law makers did wisely and happily. The fears of the 
southern section, that if joined to the north they should 
" always live in trouble and difficulty," and which led them 
in the heat of controversy to say, that they " had 
rather have one-quarter of their real estate taken from 
them than be obliged " to do so, were speedily dissipated. 
From that day to this, never has a town been more free 
from sectional strife or division. Were y;^u now to 
propose to separate the two original divisions, if any 
mortal man could find the line, you would stir up a thou- 
sand fold deeper, more protracted, and bitter struggle 
than that which brought them together. If there be one 
common feeling of joy to-day, it is that we are citizens of 
a common town. And I trust we mean to remain so, as 



34 

long as Wacbusett, our common inheritance, looks down 
upon a town at all. 

The act of 1759 made the territory, in name, a district ; 
but in its own language, invested it " with all the privi- 
leges, powers and immunities that towns in the Province 
did, or might enjoy, that of sending a Representative to 
the General Assembly only excepted." They had a right 
to send an agent to the General Court, a right which they 
soon after exercised. 

Early in the history of Rutland East Wing, the Rev. 
Thomas Prince, colleague pastor of the old South Church, 
Boston, became a large proprietor, owning five of the 
thirty-three shares. His interest was, probably, at a later 
period, larger. For this reason, and in respect to him, 
possibly to smooth matters a little with the Rutland oppo- 
sition, the town was named Prince Town, a name which the 
act of 1771 contracted to Princeton. 

The first town meeting was held, and the town organized 
by the choice of the necessary officers, on the 24th of 
December, 1759. This meeting was at the tavern of Abijah 
Moore, where all subsequent ones were held, until the 
meeting-house was boarded and partially finished, in May, 
1763. The records of the first meetings are gone from the 
record book, but it appears, from documents, that Dr. Zach- 
ariah Harvey was the first Town Clerk. At this time he 
occupied, I judge, the most prominent and influential position 
in town. The petition for incorporation is in his hand- 
writing. He had come here, not long before, from that 
part of Shrewsbury then called the Leg, and which lies 
along our eastern border, now a part of Sterling, and 
resided on the farm more recently owned and occupied by 
Deacon Ebenezer Parker. 

The first town meeting of w^hich a record exists, was in 
March, 1761. Dr. Harvey was chosen Moderator, District 
Clerk, Chairman of the Selectmen, Chairman of the Assess- 
ors, and Agent to the General Court, a plurality of offices, 
I think, never since held by one person. There seems to 



35 

have been no little trouble and commotion at this meeting, 
more, bj much, I apprehend, than has ever occurred at 
any of its successors. There is a protest upon the records, 
signed by eight persons, declaring the proceedings illegal, 
" by reason of the meeting not being purged from such 
persons, or voters, as are unqualified by law to vote." 

But the matter did not end here. The same March, a 
long memorial was sent to the General Court, by these and 
other persons, setting forth that there were, at this meeting, 
'' several votes and transactions altogether illegal and 
unwarrantable, and unfairly and unduly obtained by means 
of many persons being admitted to vote at said meeting, 
that were not legal voters there, and some that were not 
even inhabitants of the same." They go on, in very plain 
terms, to charge the Doctor with pretty high-handed and 
rather awkward measures, and ask to have the pro- 
ceedings declared void, and another meeting called and 
new officers chosen. 

The Doctor was called upon by the General Court, '' to 
render an account of the proceedings complained of." He 
filed his answer, which is missing, so that we loose his 
version of the matter. The decision was in his favor, and 
the proceedings of the meeting were ratified and 
confirmed. 

At the incorporation, few roads existed. The first of 
which I can find any trace, was, I suppose, a Province road, 
from Lancaster to Sunderland. There is a map of it in the 
State archives. It ran along the north-east line of the 
town, crossing the edge of Wachusett pond, in "Westmin- 
ster. The distance by it, as stated on the plan, from Lan- 
caster meeting-house to Wachusett pond, is eleven miles. 
This road was in existence as early as 1735, when a grant 
of land was made to Samuel Kneeland, on each side of it 
and near the pond. * 

The road, I think, also existed through town to Hub- 
bardston. The first road, apparently, built by the town, 
was that from Westminster line by Mr. John P. Rice's, over 



36 

Meeting-Honse Hill to Holden. This was in 1762. Upon 
a map of the town, taken as late as 1793, and filed with the 
Secretary of State, there are laid down only these three 
roads. Probably most of the early roads were made by a 
tax, ''worked out" upon them, as they have been repaired 
ever since. 

Originally, towns were incorporated, as a general rule, 
whenever the territory could support a gospel ministry. 
Hence, the representations in this respect, in the petitions 
I have cited. This became, therefore, at once the legal 
duty of the town, and early measures were taken to erect 
a meoting-house and settle a minister. Instantly there 
came up this exciting question of the centre, so distressing 
always in our towns. Several meetings were held upon 
this trying subject. First, the house was located ; then a 
vote revoking this ; then a committee from Bolton, Holden 
and Westminster, were appointed, with a surveyor from 
Rutland, and one from Westboro, all to " be under oath for 
the trust committed to them, to survey the town, find the 
centre, and affix the place for building the meeting-house 
on." Of what this sworn committee reported, we unfor* 
tunately have no record. The town refused to accept 
it, and finally voted to locate the house '' on the highest 
part of the land given by John and Caleb Mirick, near 
three pine trees, marked, being near a large flat rock," — the 
site upon Meeting-House Hill, with which they began. 

Here, in 1762, the first church was reared, as the record 
has it, " fifty foots long and forty foots wide." 

" Scarce steal the winds, that sweep his woodland tracks, 

The larch's perfume from the settler's axe, 

Ere, like a vision of the morning air, 

His slight framed steeple marks the house of prayer ; 

Its planks all reeking, and its paint undried ; 

Its rafters sprouting on the shady side. 

It sheds the raindrops from its shingled eaves 

Ere its green brothers once have changed their leaves, — 

Yet faith's pure hymn, beneath its shelter rude, 

Breathes out as sweetly to the tangled wood, 



37 

As when the rays thro' blazing oriels pour 

On marble shaft and tessellated floor ; 

Heaven asks no surplice round the heart that feels, 

And all is holy where devotion kneels." 

Our fathers were religious men, and long before the 
building of the meeting-house, maintained religious Avorship 
portions of the year, in private dwellings, in different parts 
of the territory. The first eerraon ever preached within 
our limits was at the tavern of Lieut. Moore, to an audience 
which a single room held. An old lady living in 1838, told 
me she remembered hearing a sermon preached there, 
by Rev. Mr. Plarrington, of Lancaster, in 1759, on the 
occasion of the District's incorporation. " There were then 
but a handful of us," said she, "who found our way to 
church by marked trees." 

In 1767, the Rev. Mr. Fuller was settled, the first minis- 
ter of the town. In 1768, upon his petition, in considera- 
tion of this, his settlement, with a heavily burdened people, 
in what he there terms " a wilderness country," the General 
Court granted him Wachusett, and the mountain thus 
passed to private hands. Mr. Fuller Avas dismissed at the 
opening of the Revolution, from difficulties between him 
and his people, growing out of that great conflict. 

I do not propose to trace any history of the town much 
beyond the point I have reached, and especially I do not 
the ecclesiastical. Since Mr. Fuller's day, religious contro- 
versies have existed, that are happily buried in the past. 
I have the charity to believe, what it is but justice I should 
say, that they have all originated in deep convictions of 
truth, and a sincere and earnest desire to promote it. Some- 
times, perhaps, the differences have been greater in appear- 
ance than in reality. Parties starting, like the streams 
from our mountain, have for a time followed in opposite 
courses, only to find themsleves at last in a common ocean. 
To-day, at least, we look back on all these scenes, as the 
sun looks on the sea, to draw up thence all that is pure, 
and sweet, and invigorating, while it leaves all that is salt 



38 

and bitter behind. We are not the less attached, as 
townsmen, because the love of a common Savior con- 
straineth us, in his service, to adopt different denomina- 
tional forms or creeds. 

In 1771, an additional act was passed, by which the gore, 
of three thousand acres, known in after years as No-Town, 
was annexed to the town. To this addition the town 
objected, and the next year petitioned the General Court, 
setting forth that this was a " strip of land extending a 
great way from the centre, Avhere the meeting-house stands, 
and that the inhabitants were poor and unable to make 
roads, and praying it may be set off again." Upon this 
petition, in 1773, an act Avas passed, setting off from the 
town all the lands which did not belong to the district ; so 
that the limits of the town became precisely the same 
under the acts of 1771 and 1773, that they were in 1759. 
Not a loot was permanently added. The map filed in 1793, 
is identical Avith the plan of 1759. The only additions 
since made are five hundred acres from Hubbardston, in 
1810, and a like area from No-Town, in 1838. None has 
been taken off, so that the present area is about twenty 
thousand acres. 

Of the history subsequent to the act of 1771, I have no 
time to speak in detail. From that period to the present, 
as already observed, the changes peculiar to the town and 
distinct from those resulting merely from participation in 
the general progress, have been less than in most towns. 
It was, and still is, purely an agricultural town. Its popu- 
lation in numbers, has been about the same for half a 
century. Its growth, prior to that time, was considerable. 
The venerable historian of Worcester County, in 1793, says: 
" In little more than thirty years from its incorporation, 
Princeton is become very considerable among the towns of 
the County. It has surprisingly increased in number and 
wealth. The finest of beef," he adds, '' is fatted here, and 
vast quantities of butter and cheese produced, and from 
the appearance of their buildings and farms, we must judge 



39 

the people are very industrious ; " and he closes a glowing 
description of the seat of Hon. Moses Gill, thus : " Upon 
the whole, this seat of Judge Gill, all the agreeable circum- 
stances respecting it being attentively considered, is not 
paralleled by any in the New England States ; perhaps not 
by any on this side of the Delaware." The President of 
Yale College, Dr. Dwight, in 1797, speaks of Princeton as 
a rich grazing township, and adds, " the houses of the in- 
habitants, and the appearance of their farms, are sufficient 
indications of prosperity, and the people are distinguished 
for industry, sobriety and sound morals." He also speaks 
of Governor Gill's establishment "as more splendid than any 
other in the interior of the State ; " and he adds what 
impresses us with the character of the surrounding country 
even then, that in attempting to make his way to Rutland, 
" he came very near being lost for the night." 

In 1771, there were in town ninety-one dwelling-houses, 
while in 1790 there were one hundred and forty-four. At 
the former period there were but one hundred eighty-three 
and three-fourths acres of tillage land out of the Avhole 
twenty thousand, and but one thousand and eighty-three 
of pasture. But little more than one-twentieth of the land 
had been subdued, and but a mere fraction brought into . 
cultivation. 

There is one other fact revealed by the valuation of 1771, 
on file at the Capitol, Avhich may astonish some who hear 
me, and which makes a heaven-wide difference between 
those days and ours. There was upon these mountain 
heights, now all vocal with shouts of freedom for the op- 
pressed, and denunciation upon the oppressor, then owned 
and dwelling, a slave — one of the few in the Province. 
Slavery has existed at the base of Wachusett. The slave's 
foot has pressed our soil, and the shackles did not fall. 

The number of dwelling-houses here in 1800 were but 
four more than in 1790, while the population in 1810 had 
increased only forty-six over that of 1790, and probably at 
this moment, after nearly seventy years, does not exceed 



40 

it by more than two hundred. Nor has the character of 
the people changed. Sons have succeeded fathers on the 
old homesteads, and worthily maintained the family name 
and honor. Were it not a little out of taste in their pres- 
ence, I should add, were the historian of Worcester County, 
or the President of Yale again to pass this way, they would 
transfer to the sons the language applied to the fathers. 

Perhaps the most marked change of the century, or even 
the last fifty years, is the disappearance of the forest. 
One returning here to-day, after a quarter of a century's 
absence, will miss first and most the immense tracts of 
primeval wood-land he used to see. Next to this absence, he 
will note a new presence, that of hundreds, of late years, 
resorting here in the Summer season. The forests have 
gone, and the fashionables have come. And although 
every gipsy hat and fluttering ribbon along our highways, 
from June to September, is a sweet exotic, we would not 
spare, we cannot help an occasional regret, that the axe 
has carried its warfare so unrelentingly, and that the wood- 
man has not here and there spared a tree, a remembrance 
of days lang syne, and a blessing and a beauty for days to 
come. 

When I speak of slight changes, I mean, as 1 have said, 
those special and peculiar to the town. In those that have 
come from the stupendous progress of the century and the 
country, it has shared to the full measure of the towns in 
the Commonwealth. Our fathers, from the days when they 
served under a King, to those when, in town meeting, they 
could arraign a President, have gone along in full sympa- 
thy with every great and good movement around them. 
Pioneers, they opened the forest, and planted civilization in 
its depths. They made roads, and built churches. They 
subdued lands, and reared school-houses. Not in advance 
of, but never behind, their fellow citizens, they shrank 
from no duty. From the first gathering of their children 
to be taught in a private school, to the voting of the last 
dollar for schooling, they maintained their educational 



41 

institutions, as you have maintained yours, up to the 
standard of the State. They and we settled ministers, and 
they became unsettled, and singularly, not one in the whole 
century, in any denomination, has died in the occupancy 
of a pulpit. And yet, what adds to the singularity, but just 
one has been involuntarily dismissed, and each has held his 
place up to the average ministerial tenure of his time and 
denomination. The fathers and the sons, in matters eccle- 
siastical, have had their divisions and their controversies, 
sometimes the outbreak of a pervading change in the com- 
munity, sometimes special to themselves ; but they have 
never failed to give the institutions of the gospel an open, 
earnest and unwavering support, from the day, uniting all 
in the doctrines of the great Genevan reformer, they gave 
Mr. Goodrich a call, to that when the conscientious sym- 
pathies of some led them to prefer to the elder faith the 
communion of that great church Wesley founded, Whitfield 
honored, and good men everywhere respect and love. 

In all the great struggles that have %vrought out and 
distinguished our country's history, the people of our 
town have been intelligent, early and active participants. 
They fought the preparatory battles of freedom with their 
King against the French, and they fought its actual battles 
with the French against their King. Their records show 
them to have been early, constant and discriminating sup- 
porters of all the measures of the Revolution, from its faint 
rising to its glorious consummation. On two occasions, at 
least, their action was of character and importance enough 
to secure honorable mention by the latest and ablest of the 
historians of the United States. The features of numbers of 
revolutionary pensioners are too distinctly impressed upon 
our memories to require the details of services in this 
war. 

They voted for our State Constitution. With a love for 

State sovereignty too ardent to leave the judgment clear 

and perfect, they opposed the Constitution of the United 

States when proposed. With a patriotism too large and 

6 



42 

judicious to yield right to consistency, when adopted they 
supported and sustained it. 

Prior to this, many of them sympathized, and some 
joined in " Shay's rebelhon," and one, if the truth must out, 
came nearer being hanged than I hope any one else from 
the town ever will lor a like or any cause. 

But I must pause. Our Thanksgiving has other ser- 
vices, which exhausted nature already reminds us we are 
under solemn obligations to perform. If I began while 
the dinner was cooking, I am continuing while it is waiting. 
Let me incur no such weighty responsibility. 

We have come up here from our homes and occupations, 
to revive associations, to renew acquaintances, to promote 
kindly feelings, to strengthen affections, brighten sympa- 
thies, and draw tighter the cords of love that bind us to 
the old family home and fireside. 

The past and present here unite 

Beneath time's flowing tide, 
Like footprints hidden by a brook, 

But seen on either side. 

Ab I have sketched the days long gone, and sought to 

" Review the scenes, 
And Bummon from the shadowy past 
The forms that once have been , " 

I have only followed the necessities of the occasion, and 
hope my rude and homely attempt may draw some charm 
from it. 

And now, as we look upon what our eyes behold; upon 
these free hills and valleys, robed in the resplendent beau- 
ties of Autumn ; upon these farms, from which the teeming 
harvests have just been gathered and garnered ; upon 
these houses of comfort and plenty ; these homes of con- 
tentment and love ; these churches, reared for the service 
of God, and these schools for the education of man ; upon 
this prosperous, moral and happy people; and then upon 
the Commonwealth and common Country, that hold over it 



43 

the shield of their power and protection, we bend in 
grateful homage before the Divine author of it all, exclaim- 
ing, " surely, the lines have fallen to us in pleasant places, 
and we have a goodly heritage." 

But this anniversary has its lesson. As we stand scan- 
ning others, so others, hereafter, will stand to scan us. 
While we are relating the past of municipal history, we 
are making the present. 

For the structure that we raise 

Time is with materials filled ; 
Our to-days and yesterdays 

Are the blocks with which we build. 

Truly shape and fashion these, 

Leave no 3'awning gaps between ; 
Think not, because no man sees, 

Such things will remain unseen. 

Build to-day, then, strong and sure, 

With a firm and ample base, 
And ascending and secure 

Shall to-morrow find its place. 



PROGRESS; 

A POEM. 
BY ERASTUS EVERETT, A. M., 

OF BROOKLYN, N. Y. 



The annual bells have rung their hundredth chime 
Since thou, ! Princeton, wast ushered into time. 
All hail, old Princeton ! To childhood's earliest home 
Thy noble sons and virtuous daughters come. 
From where yon lake reflects the forests green, 
In whose pure depths the mirrored hills are seen, 

1 From where young Nashua's silver fountain flows, 

2 Or where Pine Hill his lengthened shadow throws, 
From where thy Boylston's princely villa lies, 

Or Brook's fields salute the eastern skies, 
aWhere dwelt thy Gill in magisterial state. 
And taught thy sons what virtues make us great 
From where thy churches' modest spires ascend, 
And warn us all to seek in Heaven a friend ; 
Come from thy utmost borders, here we stand 
And, brethren all, each grasps a brother's hand. 
A few have roved in distant lands away 
From where their infant eyes first saw the day, — 
To Hampshire's mountains clad in ice and snow. 
To western wilds where lurks the savage foe. 
To southern lauds where glows a burning sky 
And sugared fruits in wild profusion lie. 
And they too bid thee hail ! They too are come, 
Thy truant sons and daughters, welcomed home. 
From prairie, hill and vale assembled here 
To celebrate with thee thy Hundredth Year. 

Though winds blow fierce from many a woody steep. 
And wintry storms their boisterous revels keep, 
Though late the snow dotli in the furrow lie 



45 



■1 And dwarfish Fall-flowerB prematurely die, 
O'er this loved spot aifections linger still 
And fondly cluster round Wachusett Hill. 

Progress I sing : — my muse assist the lay, — 
Allied the theme to this auspicious day. 

A time thex'e was, when all the vast domain 
Of hill and valley, woodland, lake and plain, 
From where Katahdin rears his awful head, 
(By him Penobscot's gelid sjarings are fed) 
To modern Ophir, California's strand, 
Whose rivers flow in beds of golden sand. 
From where the wind-god rules the stormy North 
And clothes in icy mail the frozen earth, 
To where the groves in living green appear 
And Spring and Summer share the equal year, — 
When all this land so fruitful and so fair. 
Alike the patriot's pride and patriot's care. 
Was one vast haunt of savage beasts of prey 
And Indian warriors fiercer still than they. 
Algonquins and Iroquois of various name 
Roamed far and wide and chased the antlered game. 
Rude Art had taught to bend the supple yew, — 
From birchen bark to form the light canoe ; 
With that they learned the furry bear to slay ; 
With this from lakes to temjDt the finny prey. 
All this they took as Nature freely gave 
In ignorance content no more to crave. 
The kindly earth afforded tuberous roots, 
Ceres spontaneous, yielded bearded fruits. 
Kind Nature thus supplied the place of Art 
And made provision for the grosser part, 
But no provision made or care had given 
For that which makes us men and heirs of heaven. 

5 Nor must we fancy this the golden age, 
With which the poets fill the mythic page. 
When acorns were the simple shepherd's food 
And blissful ignorance taught him naught but good. 
The savage bosom heaved with passions dire. 
With malice, hate, revenge and deadly ire. 
Nor men in arms alone the foe engaged : 
'Gainst age and sex the fiendish warfare raged. 
The hoary sire that in his arm-chair dozed, 
The tender babe that in its crib reposed, 
Matron and maid in mingled slaughter bled 
And swelled the list of prematurely dead. 



46 

The captive little cause of joy they gave, 
Doomed to a life more dreadful than the grave. 
Dire was his punishment : for who can tell 
The tortures practised by these hounds of hell ! 
Not Nero's hate or Herod's jealous rage, 
Which stain with blood the classic Gibbon'e page, 
Not Britain's Queen whose frequent fagots, burned 
Round Smithfield's stake, her " Bloody " title earned, 
Where Ridley, Latimer and Cranmer bled. 
Immortal trio of the martyred dead, 
Contrived the tortures ingeniously severe 
Which in our earlj"^ Indian wars ajipear. 

Nor then, loved Princeton, was thy rude domain. 
Where Peace, Content and Industry now reign. 
Free from the savage foe that nightly prowled 
More fierce than famished wolves that round him howled. 
On th' eastern slope whence old Waehusett swells, 

6 A little girl (for so tradition tells) 

Had strayed from home, what time th' autumnal blast 

Had strewn the frozen ground with golden mast 

And dapi^le squirrel's merry bark did tell 

The huntsmen where his kindred loved to dwell. 

Still lured along by objects strange and wild. 

Many such objects lured the simple child, 

An Indian's feathered plume she sudden spies 

And echo answers to her frantic cries. 

Around her head the threatening hatchet gleams 

And tears and sobs succeed to childish screams. 

The neighbors came from all the country round. 

Resolved the little wanderer should be found. 

They formed a circle, toward the centre drew. 

And gave from time to time the loud halloo. 

They searched each bush, nook, thicket, hollow tree, 

Where'er, by chance, a little child might be ; 

Prolonged the search, nor ceased from day to day. 

Till the last, lingering hope had died away. 

Surmises horrible filled eacli anxious breast, 

Surmises long indulged and then expressed : 

She lived — had gone 'niong savage tribes to dwell : — 

All else conjecture : — tlie sequel none could tell. 

Some said she waded through Canadian snows 

To where St. Laurent's mighty current flows ; 

Some said she pined, a captive, 'neath the skies 

Where Saratoga's healing waters rise, 

7 Or hoarse Niagara in thunder roars 

And down the abyss the ceaseless torrent pours. 
Her stricken father travelled far and near 



47 

As rumours variouB reached his eager ear ; 
But rumours vain no certain tidings gave 
And he forgot his sorrows in the grave. 

When but a child, I heard my mother say 
How thou , fair Rowlandson , wast driven away. 
Pity and rage by turns my bosom stirred 
As I the horrors of thy story heard. 

She wandered on with painful steps and slow, 
And marked with crimson dye the virgin snow. 
Methinks I hear her pray with stifled breath, 
" ! God when wilt thou grant relief in death? " 
The night is darkest just before the day ; 
Th' all-seeing One watched o'er her weary way, 
Brought help from far his cherished child to save 
And granted life to one who asked a grave. 

8 Concord's illustrious son the ransom paid 

On that high rock where we in childhood played ; 
Near Graves' swamp where Frost his father slew — 
Half idiot Frost, the dread of all he knew. 

Such tales as these which freeze the youthful blood 
The ancient annals of our town record. 
My soul, turn from them. 'Tis well we change the lay 
From this dark race that long hath passed away. 
No council fires now shed their fitful flame 
Or mothers hush their babes with Philip's name. 

Genoa's Pilot launched from Palos' shore, 
Through unknown seas his timid followers bore. 
On Guanahani's coast his flag unfurled 
And gave to Castile's Queen another world. 
Cabot came next, Caboto rightly named, 
In Venice born — Venice for beauty famed, 
Amerigo Vespucci next we see. 
Born at fair Florence — Italians all the three. 
This last the land admired and filled his page 
With fabled splendors of the golden age. 
Bright golden fishes in the waters played 
And gold-winged warblers flitted through the glade : 
The waters flowed in beds of golden sand 
And hills of gold o'erlooked the happy land. 
The waving palms in living green were dressed. 
Whose fruits ran nectar ere the lip had pressed. 
Green sunny seas the sunny shores did lave 
And Nature furnished more than man could crave. 

9 The Tuscan thus filled Europe with his fame 
And this vast continent received his name. 



48 

De Soto first drank Mississippi's wave 

And in its turbid waters found a grave. 

All gallant Raleigh's cruel fate bemoaned 

Who on the block for fancied crimes atoned. 

Hudson saw first IVlanhattan's azure ekies, 

Where now a thousand marble mansions rise ; 

There sculptured piles the distant prospect bound, 

There Mammon's self his favorite seat hath found 

And Wall-street stands confessed, his consecrated ground. 

But who shall fitly name the Pilgrim band, 
That launched their ship from low Batavia's strand. 
Ploughed the dark sea, nor feared the stormy flood 
Which bore them nearer to their equal God ! 

" The breaking waves dashed high 

On a stern and rock-bound coast, 
And the woods against a stormy sky 

Their giant branches tossed : 

And the heavy night hung dark 

The hills and waters o'er. 
When a band of exiles moored their bark 

On the wild New-England shore." 

Thus Hemans sung sublime and swept the lyre 
Divinely wild, — her lips were touched with fire — 
And who shall dare, presumptuous, to explore 
The upward path which she hath trod before ? 
10 Our fathers planted here 'mid ice and snow 
A fruitful vine which hath not ceased to grow. 
O'er hill and vale it shoots its leafy boughs 
And distant nations 'neath its shade repose. 

Then first the axe through ancient forests rung, 
Forests grown old ere yet blind Homer sung ; 
The sturdy woodman, doubling stroke on stroke, 
Laid low the towering pine and knotted oak ; 
The giant trunks in blackened ruins lay 
And purblind monsters, frightened, fled the day ; 
Earth's bosom heaved with elemental strife 
And teemed with a thousand novel forms of life. 
Man o'er th' Atlantic brought the noble steed 
Which on Granada's plains was wont to feed, 
Taught the proud charger of th' embattled field 
To the mild yoke his patient neck to yield, 
With daity toil to aid the laboring train 



49 



And fit the earth to yield the yellow gra-in. 
n Such thine, ! Hai'rington , Avhich vre oft have seen 
Where mustering troops moved o'er j^ou shaven green. 
When the shrill clarion rent the crystal eky 
To tell the host the mimic fight -was nigh. 
His burning nostrils wide and streaming mane, 
Th' impatient bit which spurned the tightened rein, 
12 His neck with thunder clothed and eye of fire, 
Left us in doubt if most we should admire 
The haughty grace with which the charger trod 
Or practised skill with which the master rode. 
Each thrifty farmer with his neighbor vied, 
By patient implements the sod was plied ; 
Exotic shrubs adorned the gay parterre. 
Exotic flowers perfumed the morning air ; 
The moss-rose bloomed where once the thorn grew wild 
And all the land a flowery garden smiled. 

The mother countrj' a cruel step-dame proved, 
Nor loved her children but their tribute loved. 
She taxed the luxuries and the wants of life. 
She taxed the husband and she taxed the wife ; 
Th' imported brandy and the home-brewed malt, 
The rich man's spices and the poor man's salt. 
She taxed their sugar, (and she taxed their tea 
Till Boston Mohawks steeped it in the sea.) 
Hills piled on hills at length the mountain form 
Whose cloud-capped top forebodes the rising storm. 
'Neath such a mountain bound, the Titan strove, 
In vain, to move the load imposed by Jove. 
So, taxes following taxes, one by one, 
Grew mountain loads which made a province groan 
With giant throws the mountain heaved at length 
And Britain knew the infant giant's strength. 

AVherc yon proud obelisk stands sentinel 
To guard the sacred graves of Bunker's Hill, 
13 1 used to liear my aged kinsmen say 
" Balls flew like hailstones,'' that eventful day. 
They in the bloody conflict bore a part ; 
Their country's call had taught the warlike art. 
Warren just saw the nation's rising sun, 
And, falling, died and deathless laurels won. 
The day was lost, and patriots nobly bled 
But called for vengeance, trumpet- tongued though dead 
Then rose the mighty Chief, for valor known 
And skill in war, and prudence all his own. 
Biding his time, he fled before his foes 

7 



50 



As waves are driven when the temjaest blows. 

Sudden he turned — when lo ! his foes dispersed, 

As clouds are riven when the thunders burst. 

He taught the Briton 'nenth his eye to quail 

And on the Hessian poured the leaden hail. 

On Trenton's plains the red-mouthed cannon blazed, 

The hireling wretclies i-outed fled amazed, 

And Pi'inceton's glorious day our fallen fortunes raised. 

Across the flood tli' astounding tidings sped 

And hoary monarchs trembled while they read. 

Not greater panic seized Bel&hazzar's hall 

When menc tekel was written on the wall. 

The thunderbolts of war the hero hurled 

And, conquering, the stars and stripes unfurled 

Which i^iroudly float aloft o'er every sea 

And floating, flap the emblems of the free. 

The Stars of light guide up to glory's path, 

The Stripes are emblems of the nation's wrath. 

We've chosen for our Arms the bird of Jove, 

Acknowledged chief of birds that soar above. 

The Olive proffers peace where'er it goes, 

The Arrows hurl defiance at our foes. 

E Pluribus proclaims our vast extent , 

Unum, the nature of our Government. 

The Shield, our yeomanry, unconquered host. 

Is still our buckler and our country's boast. 

We teach no arts but those of peace and love 
Brought by the Prince of Peace from heaven above. 
Let Louis deluge lands in human blood 
And be, self constituted, the scourge of God ! 
Our mission is to benefit mankind 
And, dying, leave a heritage of peace behind. 
Of warlike arts let Europeans boast. 
We yet have art enough to guard our coast. 
E'en if they chance to land, they still shall find 
We have some cotton-bales to hide behind. 
Let their siiarp-shooters come with Minie ball 
With our Sharp's shooters we will shoot them all. 

But who shall sing the progress of the State 
In all that makes a nation truly great ! 
The Steam-leviathan holds his steady path, 
Reckless of time or tide or tempest's wrath ; 
O'er the vast ocean speeds his trackless way 
Nor yet reposes in the coast-bound bay ; 
He mounts the foaming river to its source 
Before he slackens in his onward course ; 



51 



And yet no monumental shaft doth rise 
To tell the world where Robert Fulton lies. 
Railroads, Briareus-like, with hundred hands 
Bind thirty States and one in iron bands : 
O'er prairie, river, A'alley, hill and plain 
The iron-floree speeds on his clattering train, 
Transports the products of a thousand fields 
Yet meek submission to his master yields. 
Prometheus, when he stole celestial fire 
To light man's lifeless clay, provoked Heaven's ire ; 
Bound on a rock, condemned, he bled 
While on his h^rt th' insatiate vulture fed. 
Ah ! mighty Fabulist, thou ill didst know 
The spark divine possessed by man below. 
The Great Creator made him lord of all — 
Animals and elements on this earthly ball. 

14 Who taught the stork to wing her annual flight 
Taught man to bring her from her airy height. 
Our Franklin turned the lightning from its way 
And on the kite-string saw it harmless play. 
Morse, more i^resumptuous still, prescribed its path 

15 Nor yet for this incensed the heavenly wrath. 
Field sent the flash along the ocean bed 

And through the deep the royal message sped. 
Franklin was born on Boston's rounded height, 
Morso first at classic Cambridge saw the light, 
Field, Stockbridge proudly claims as all her own. 
And Massachusetts claims them every one. 

Our childhood's joys, though blotted from the mind 
Like stars from heaven, have left a light behind. 
Ah ! halcyon days, when we went forth to snare 
The mottled partridge and the bounding hare, 
Squirrels and birds to hunt each 'Lection- day 
And every Summer spread the new-mown hay. 
In yonder lake, we took the frequent bath 
And trapped the muskrat in his furrowed path. 
When Winter clothed the earth in snowy fleece 
We staid at home and played at fox and geese 
Or simple morris (but never cards or dice,) 
Then sallied forth to skate upon the ice. 
Returned home late, we said our evening prayer, 
And soon in sleei^ forgot each boyish care. 

There on the hill, where once a willow stood 
Close by the pool where played the gosling brood, 
The hoary grandsire whiled old age away, 
And pipe and Bible closed each happy day. 



52 



The giant clock that clicked behind the door, 

16 To fix exactly noon, eleven and four. 
The oaken staff with curious dog-like head 
The chest of drawers and the low-posted bed, 
The gold-bowed spectacles that helped the sight 
To read the News and Holy page aright — 
These precious heir-looms all, we'll treasure still 
And, dying, leave one to each loved child by Will. 

Transporting joys ! when every Fourth of Slay 
We witnessed all the feats of Training- day. 
Oft did the captain chide the raw recruit 
Who " left the ranks " for gingerbread or fruit, 

17 Laughed at his faults, or deeds of mischief done, 
Brandished his sword and showed how fields were won. 
Pleased with his men the good man learned to glow ; 
Forgot their blunders and their mischief too. 
Careless their merits or their faults to scan. 

He all forgave ere penitence began. 

Thus to relieve the soldier was his pride, 

And e'en his failings leaned to Virtue's side. 

This th' Old Militia. The " Independent " band. 

Was famed for martial glory through the land. 

They knew the tactics, (all that their captains knew,) 

Both Merriams taught, and Major Dudley too. 

The brothel's Merriam were of warlike fame. 

From warlike lineage too "tis said they came. 

By nature martial both ; — Joseph the Colonel's name ;- 

The other, Amos, called from holy seer of old, 

Was Captain then, and Deacon now enrolled. 

Such troops of late swejit o'er Magenta's plain, 

Choked up Palaestro's riv3r with the slain 

And, while the world looked on in silent awe, 

Fixed the proud Hapsburg's bounds and gave him law. 

'Twere vain to tell the Captains of renown. 
Or even Colonels, born in this goodly town. 
'Twere sheer impertinence again to tell 
What Russel eloquent has told so well. 
These warlike worthies now have civic grown 
Fill posts of trust, of honor and renown. 
And wear with equal grace, the oak or laurel crown. 
At every party gathering round this hill 
One served his party, and he served them well. 
He calmed their petty quarrels, hushed their broils. 
Professed the creed, " To victors be the spoils,^' 
And he was bidden, as a fit reward, 



53 



This goodly Township's correspondence guard. 

18 He kept the papers too, nor kept too long 
When State elections drew th' annual throng. 
Too honest he to fawn or seek for power 

By tricks oft practised in the eventful hour. 

Scarce did the coachman light from ofi' his box, 

When bankers hurried in to learn the price of stocks ; 

And many a blushing maiden he made glad 

With rhyming ditties irom her absent lad, 

By gilt-edged letters made completely well 

Both pining widow and censumptive belle. 

19 The Doctor now prescribes for female ills. 
Along with gilt-edged letters, gilded pills.. 
To him the politicians all resort 

For news/rom Zurich or St. James' court, 

Or that last speech the " Little Giant " made, 

And " guess " if Wise or Douglas has the wiser head. 

Little reck I, assured that both must yield, 

And Banks or Seward win the well-fought field. 

Ladies, your smiles suggest another theme, 

20 Ah ! yes, the very same, 'tis Love's young dream. 
beauteous maidens, how shall I declare 

Your charms ? Vain were the task and I forbear. 
Consult your mirrors, and you shall almost see 
What charming creatures your mothers used to be. 
A grace that mocks the Grecian sculptor's art 
Beams in the eye and moves in every part. 
That witching smile and dimple, faintly show 
Your mothers' beauty thirty years ago. 

Seven sister stars look down from Taurus' height. 
Seven Grecian Sages saw bright wisdom's light, 
Seven golden lamps in darkened Asia shone, 

21 And thrice seven preachers, Princeton calls her own. 
Go forth, ye heralds of the living God ! 

Cross desert, jungle, valley, hill and flood ; 
Proclaim salvation free, unsold, unbought. 
And teach the blessed truths the Saviour taught. 
Pagan and Jew the great Messiah shall own 
And shine as stars in your eternal crown. 

As early memories throng around the heart 
And later griefs, for each hath had his part, 
We heave th' unbidden sigh, an offering given 
To absent ones, too early called to heaven. 
Three generations, — all have passed away 



54 



Within the century we close to-day. 
The first had ended this tragi-comic strife 
Ere we were usliered upon the stage of life ; 
The second only feeble traces left behind 
Among the shattered pictures of the mind ; 
The third in limb and feature yet remain, 
Entire, unmarred by fracture, blur or stain. 

Pardon, my townsmen, the tribute of a tear 
Paid to the one m^^ memory holds most dear. 
On the same day, we drew the vital air, 
On the same couch forgot each daily care, 
At the same notch, we turned the steel-yard beam, 
In the same field, we urged the sluggish team ; 
In Dartmouth's Halls both sought for wisdom's lore, 
Both left, when duty called, our native shore. 
We went far off in Southern lands to dwell : — 
He died, amd half his virtues none can tell. 
Oh ! brother, lost one, whither art thou fled ?• 
Hold'st thou thy nightly vigils by my bed ? 
Know'st thou the fancies that possess my brain, 
When in my dreams thou seem'st alive again ? 
Rejoicest thou before the throne of God 
No more to smart beneath Affliction's rod? 
Where'er thou art, in bright angelic spheres, 
Or sent to calm thy doubting brother's fears, 
To me the world is palled in frequent gloom 
For thou art gathered to the mouldering tomb. 
Though fortune smile — give all she ever gave, 
My life will be a bark on stormy wave. 
Lo ! heavenly visions dawn upon my sight, 
1 see thee clad in robes of living light. 
And I rejoice that thou hast won the Christian fight. 



i 



NOTES 



(1) page 44. 

" Fro?n where yonntj Nashua'' s silver fountain JIows/' 

The Nashua has four sources in the town of Princeton, viz : two which 
rise on the north side of Wachusett mountain and flow into Wachusett 
Lake ; one which flows through the farm of Mr. Roswell Osgood ; and one 
which rises between Pine Hill and Wachusett mountain, &c. 

(2) page 44. 

" Or ivhere Pine Hill his lengthened shadow throws/' 

Pine Hill is very high and verj' precipitous, so that there is no moun- 
tain of which it can be said so significantly that it throAvs a " lengthened 
shadow. ' ' 

(3) page 44. 

" Where dwelt thy Gill in magisterial state.''' 

The late Lieut. Governor Gill, of Massachusetts, dwelt in a mansion 
which stood not far from the present residence of Dr. Boylston. 

(4) page 45. 

^^ Though late the snow doth in the furrow lie.'''' 

The snows are more abundant about Wachusett mountain than in any 
other part of the State, except, perhaps, the Berkshire Hills. This moun- 
tain forms the water-shed between the Connecticut and the Merrimack ; it 
is about 2900 feet in height. 

(5) page 45. 

The follies of the golden age were revived by Jean Jacques Rousseau, 
who, in his Essay before the Academy of Dijon, maintained that virtue 
can be found among the ignorant only, and that vice is a necessary accom- 
paniment of education. 

(6) page 46. 

" On th'' eastern slope whence old Wachusett swells, 
A little girl (for so trad'ition tells.)'" 

As the fate of the " Lost Child " has always created great interest and 
sympathy, I have taken great pains to solve the mystery which has hith- 
erto surrounded it. Having, Avhile in Princeton at the time of the Cen- 
tennial Celebration, seen abetter, written by Mrs. Cornelia B. K. Brown, 
dated at Eaton, New York, in 1827, which gave the death-bod confession 
of a man who declared that he had murdered the child, I determined to 
get further particulars, if possible, and wrote Mrs. Brown, scarcely hoping 
to receive an ausAver. I was agreeably disappointed by the receipt of a 



56 

letter, dated " Rockport, Bourbon County, Kansas Territory, Dec. 8th 
1859." She says: " I gave more credence to the report from the fact, that 
all the years of my girlhood were spent within half a mile of Mrs. John 
Gleason, of Princeton, whose name, previous to her marriage, was Mrs. 
Patty Keyes, sister to the lost child Lucy,and oneofthe'two sisters who went 
to the pond for sand ; ' and I have many times listened as she related the 
sad story of the child's disappearance, together with other incidents that, 
in my opinion, corroborated the truth of Mrs. Anderson's statement. 
Mrs. Anderson, of Deerfield, New York, witnessed the confession, told it 
to Mrs. Whitmoi-e, and she gave it to me. Mrs. Whitmore has been dead 
more tlian thirty years. JMrs. Anderson I never saw, and whether she is 
still living 1 do not know." 

* ' V * # # # # # « 

" I was told that Mr. Littlejohn was thought to be dying for three daj's. 
At length he arose in bed, and speaking audibly, said he could not die 
until he had confessed a murder that he committed many years before. Said 
he was formerly a neighbor of Robert Keyes, of Princeton, Mass, There 
was a misunderstanding between the two families. Mr. and Mrs. Keyes 
lelt unpleasantly to live thus, and went to Mr. S's. to effect, if possible, a 
reconciliation, which having been, apparently, accomplished, and mutual 
pledges of renewed friendship exchanged, they, Mr. K. and wife, returned 
home. But the enmity of Mr. S. had not subsided. He sought revenge ; 
and afterwards, seeing the little daughter alone in the woods, to avenge 
himself on the parents, killed her by beating her head against a log, and 
then placed her body in a hollow log and went to his house. When the 
neighbors were solicited to assist in searching for the lust, he was among the 
first, and bein^ familiar with the forest, he volunteered to lead the party, 
carefully avoiding the hollow log, till night. After dark he went to the 
hollow log, took the body and deposited it in a hole, which had been made 
by the overturning of a tree." 

Littlejohn died at Deerfield, New York. The date of his death is all 
that remains to be learned. This bad man lived on the place now owned 
by Ephraim Osgood. I have other letters, one from the Town Clerk of 
Deerfield, and one from Rev. Samuel Everett, of Iowa City, whose wife is 
a niece of the lost child, both tending to confirm the statements of Mrs. B. 
The interest of the subject is m^' only apology for having been thus 
minute. 1 have only to add that the mother was brought to the verge of 
insanity by the loss of her little girl, and for a long time after her disap- 
pearance, she always went out at night- fall and called, Lu-cy ! but the 
echo from the aged forests was the only answer. 

(7) page 46. 

" Or hoarse Niagara in thunder roars. ''^ 

The Avord Niagara, signifies in the Iroquois language, the thunder of the 
waters. 

(8) page 47. 

'■^Concord's illustrious son the ransom paid 

On that high rock lohere loe in childhood played.'''' 

Mrs. Rowlandson was taken prisoner at the burning of Lancester, Feb. 
10th, 1765, and after -wandering about with her savage masters for several 
months, probably till November, she was redeemed by Captain Hoar of 
Concord. Tradition has fixed the place of her redemption on the high 
rock known as the Rowlandson Rock, situated in Everettville, Princeton, 
Mass. On this rock I have spent many a happy hour. Hon. EdAvard 
Everett, (Mount Vernon Papers, Nov. 19th, 1859,) says : " The captivity 
of Mrs. Rowlandson is not to be read without tears, after a lapse of nearly 
two centuries." 



57 

(9) page 47. 
" The Tuscan thus filled Europe icith his fame, 
And this vast continent received his name.^' 

In living's life and voyages of Columbus, Putnam's Edition, 1849, Vol. 
in, page 343, I find the loliuwing : 

"Xote to the Revised Edition, 1848. — Humboldt, in his Examen Critique, 
published in Paris, in 1837, say,s : ' I have been so happy as to discover, 
very recently, the name and the literaiy relations of the mysterious 
personage, who (in 1507), was the firet to propose the name of America, 
to designate the new continent, and who concealed himself under the 
Grecianized name, Hylasomylas.' He then, by a long and ingenious 
investigation, shows that the real name oi' this personage was Martin 
"VValdseemuller, of Fryburg, an eminent cosmographer, patronized by 
Riene, Duke of Loraine, who, no doubt, put in his hands the letter 
received by him from Amerigo Vespucci. The geographical works of 
WaldseemuUer, under the assumed name of Hjdasomylas, had a wide 
circulation, went through repeated editions, and propagated the use of 
the name America throughout the world. There is no reason to suppose 
that this application of the name was iu any wise suggested by Amerigo 
Vespucci. It appears to have been entirely gratuitous on the part of 
"WaldseemuUer." 

It is peculiarly gratifying to be able to settle this question by an 
appeal to the Historian, whose death has recently cast a gloom over 
Sunnyside, but whose writings his countrymen will not willingly let die. 

(10) page 48. 

"<Suc/t thine, O ! Harrington, ichich ive oft have seen." 

The late Captain Harrington of Princeton is here referred to. He was 
very proud of his horse which was, indeed, one of the noblest specimens of 
that noble animal. Persons who used to attend the musters at Lancaster 
thirty-five years ago will recognize the picture. 

(11) page 49. 

" Our fathers planted here ^mid ice and snow 
A fruitful vine which hath not ceased to grow." 

Ps. LXXX, 10 — 11. — The hills were covered with the shadow of it, and 
the boughs thereof were like the goodly cedars. 
She sent out her boughs unto the sea, and her branches unto the rivers. 

(12) page 49. 

*^His neck with thunder clothed, and eye of fire." 
Job XXXIX, 19. — Hast thou clothed his neck with thunder? 

(13) page 49. 

' ' I used to hear my aged kinsmen say 
Balls fell like hailstones that eventful day." 

The kinsmen here referred to are my maternal uncle, Abijah Wood, late 
of Westminster, who was at the battle of Bunker's Hill, and my grand- 
father, the late Joshua Everett, who held a Lieutenant's commission during 
the Revolution, and made a campaign in the Jerseye. 



58 

(14) page 51. 

" Who taught the stork to wing her annxial flight.'" 

Jer. VIII, 7. — Yea, the stoi'k in the heaven knoweth her appointed 
times ; and the turtle, and the crane, and the swallow observe the time ot 
their coming. 

(15) page 51. 

^''Nor yet for this incensed the heavenly lurath.^'' 

For a long time after the invention of the li<|htning rod, by Dr. Franklin , 
its introduction was opposed on the ground that it was presumption to 
avert, in this manner, the judguients of God. 

(16) page 52. 

'"''To fix exactly noon, eleven andfowr.''^ 

Noon was the hour of dinner. At eleven and four our ancesters were 
in the habit of taking the semi-diurnal dram. This was before the organ- 
ization of Temperance Societies and a little New England was thought 
necessary for frequent infirmities, 

(17) page 52. 

^^ Laughed at his faults, or deeds of mischief done. 
Brandished his sword and showed how fields were icon. 
Pleased with his men, the good man learned to glow. 
Forgot their blunders and their mischief too ; 
Careless their merits or their faults to scan. 
He all forgave ere penitence began. 
Thus to relieve the soldier was his pride, 
And e'en his failings leaned to Virtue'' s side.''' 

Imitated from Goldsmith : 

"Wept e'er his wounds, or tales of sorrow done. 

Shouldered his crutch and showed how fields were won. 

Pleased with his guests, the good man learned to glow, 

And quite forgot their vices in their woe ; 

Careless their merits or their faults to scan. 

His pity gave ere charity began. 

Thus to relieve the wretched was his pride. 

And e'en his failings leaned to Virtue's side. 

(18) page 53. 

"/Ze kept the papers too, nor kept too lo7ig.^' 

One of the tricks of " the party," is to keep back papers which contain 
news of defeats elsewhere, on the eve of an election, so tJiat the voters may 
not be influenced by the news. 

(19) page 53. 

"The Doctor now prescribes for female ills." 

Doctor Brooks succeeded Colonel Gill as postmaster, but a few months 
before the reading of this poem. 



59 



(20) page 53. 
'^Ah.' yes, the very same, 'tis Lovers yourig dream.'' 

" genitoris imagine capta." — Virgil. 

(21) page 53. 

^^ And thrice seven preachers Princeton calls her own." 

It is thought that Princeton may challenge comparison with any other 
town of the same population, for the number of Ministers of the Gospel 
that have been born within its limits. With a population of less than 
one thousand lour hundred, it has given birth to twenty-one clergymen. 
Their names, arranged pretty nearly with reference to seniority, are aa 
follows ; 



Rev. Sylvanus Ilaynes, 

" Abel AVoods, 

" Leonard Woods, D. D., 

" Thomas Mason, 

" AVilliam Mason, 

" Charles Brooks, 

" John Keyes, 

" Humphrey Moore, D. D. 

" Samuel Everett, 

" Joshua Eveleth, 

" Ephraim Eveleth, 



Rev. Oliver Allen, P. D., 

" Elisha Perry, 

" Ebenezer Mirick, 

" Moses Gill, 

" William Allen, 

" Ezra Newton, 

" William P Smith. 

" AY. AV. Parker, 

" AVilliam Phillips, 

" Joel Gleason. 



Rev. Oliver Allen, D. D , late Missionary to Bombay, " Princeton calls 
her own," as his parents moved from Barre, where he was born, to Prin- 
ceton, when he was only five years old, and he resided here constantly 
afterwards. 



60 



The Morning Session closed with the singing of an orig- 
inal Hymn, written by Rev. William T. Briggs, Pastor of 
the Church in which the services were held, in the tune of 
Old Hundred. 

II Y M N . 

Here, ■where our fathers stood, we stand, 
The confluence of a might}" stream ; 
And voices from the far off land, 
Blend with the day, the hour, the theme. 

A century past ! A century hence ! 
To-day the nuptial knot we tie ; 
We link them in the noblest sense, 
With thdu^hts and deeds which cannot die. 

By all the memories of this hour — 
By yonder graves wlicre sleep our sires, 
By these grand hills whose summits tower 
High o'er this altar's kindling fires ; — 

By all the gleanings of the past ; 
By sacred earth, and skies o'erhead ; 
Here let us vow — while life shall last, 
To emulate the pious dead. 

And when we sleep l)cneath the sod. 
Where fathers and wliere mothers lie — 
Come thou blest Savior — mighty God ! 
And bear us all to realms on high. 



Benediction, by Rev. John Goodwin. 



61 



THE DliSTNER. 



The Procession, escorted by the Band, reached the tent, 
where an abundant dinner had been prepared by Capt. 
Fletcher, of Leominster, at about two o'clock. 

When the large company, numbering more than a thou- 
sand persons, had taken their seats, the President of the 
day said : 

Ladies and Gentlemen: — Our fathers, we trust, acknowl- 
edged God in all their ways. As we are about to partake 
of the fruits of His bounty, the Divine Blessing will be 
asked by Rev. Dr. Allen. 

Prayer was accordingly offered by Dr. Allen. 

In consequence of the state of the weather, which was 
blustering and cold, it was judged prudent to return, after 
the close of the dinner, to the Church, that the sentiments 
and addresses which were anticipated, might be given there. 



AFTERNOON SERVICES IN THE CHURCH. 



When the company had again taken their places in the 
Church, which was well filled, the President rose, and 
having called the assembly to order, said : 

Ladies and Gentlemen: — Assembled as we have been 
to-day, to celebrate the hundredth anniversary of the 
incorporation of the Town of Princeton, it becomes my 
pleasant duty, on this occasion, to extend to you a welcome. 



62 

Had we met here, ladies and gentlemen, to partake of the 
repast, Avhich now is among the things that are missing, 
and must be remembered with those that are gone by ; 
had we assembled to interchange social congratulations, 
the day, the occasion would have been worthy of such a 
gathering. But we meet to-day, ladies and gentlemen, for 
a higher and more noble purpose. "We come here, I trust, 
first of all, with our hearts full of gratitude to the Author 
of all good, and who governs the destinies of nations as 
well as of individuals, for His great mercy and goodness to 
our fathers in their time of toil and labor. They established 
the institutions which we to-day so richly enjoy. We come 
here to commemorate the deeds and the acts of our fathers. 

But, ladies and gentlemen, I will not detain yon a 
moment. The speaking for this day and occasion, has been 
assigned to other and abler minds. Permit me then, sons 
and daughters of Princeton ; those who have been absent 
but have now retxirned ; adopted sons and daughters ; 
strangers who have honored us with your presence on this 
occasion ; male und female, young and old, rich and poor ; 
one and all, we bid you a hearty, cordial welcome. 

We will now attend to the intellectual feast of the day. 
The first sentiment will be announced by our Toast-Master, 
Joshua T. Everett. 

No. 1. Tlie Day we Celebrate — The close of the first century of our 
municipal existence. It greets us as freemen ; still in the possession and 
full enjoyment of all those precious rights of man, intended to be secured 
to us by the founders of the free republican government of the old Bay 
State. It stirs anew our sympathies for the oppressed. It inspires us 
with deep thankfulness for the past, high hopes for the future, and fresh 
resolves to be ever vigilant in the cause of impartial liberty ; and aifoi'ds 
the cheering augury that the rounding of another such a period of time 
will find these hills and valleys radiant with the fires of freedom ; teeming 
with an intelligent and virtuous people, peaceful as a gentle Autumn day, 
and free as the whistling winds that play round our own Wachusctt. 

The Band played ''Hail Columbia," in response to the 
patriotic sentiment. 



63 

No. 2. The Sons of Princeton — Our town has reared men of eminence 
for their geniiit*, their learning, their Avisdom, and their wit ; but we are 
able to add to-day one distinguished name ^Ioore to the number. 

The Peesident — Will our venerable friend Moore supply 
what Moore seems to be needed on this occasion? 

Rev. Humphrey Moore, D. D., of Milford, New Hamp- 
shire, now eighty-one years of age, resjDonded to the call, 
as follows : 

3Ir. President and Ladies and Gentlemen : — I thought 
this was a farming town, and that there were teamsters 
here, who were used to teaming with oxen. When I was 
a boy, teamsters put the steers and young oxen forward 
and the old ones behind. (Laughter.) But you have 
seemed to reverse the order of custom, if not the order of 
nature ; you have brought up the old ox here to stand in 
front, not in the rear. But as you hold to improvement 
and advancement, and to the reversion of nature and 
custom, I will say a few words. 

I understand from the sentiment read by the Toast- 
Master, that the sons of Princeton are to be addressed. 
But where are the daughters ? I find them not in the 
sentiment expressed. But I suppose the sentiment will 
allow us to infer that the sows embrace the daughters. 
(Laughter.) We will take them both together, then. 
(Renewed laughter.) Fellow townsmen and women, I am a 
son, an old son — 1 will not say an old boy — of Princeton. 
I am nineteen years and one day younger than Princeton. 
I have not any distinct recollection of what transpired 
during those nineteen years, inasmuch as I was not on the 
soil of Princeton. But, in 1778, between the 18th and 19th 
of October, one dark night, it is stated by the records of 
the town, that one by the name of Moore, came into this 
place. (Laughter.) I don't recollect the fact. (Renewed 
merriment.) I do not recollect the circumstances, but I 
believe tradition, and I beheve the record. And now. 



64 

here I stand to make some remarks, which I could wish 
might prove appropriate. 

In referring to my early life, I will say that five young 
men, before me, from this town, passed through college. 
They all became Clergymen, men of talents, men of char- 
acter, and, I believe, men of usefulness in their respective 
places. Next after them, one Moore came forward for the 
purpose of preparing for College. He had but little means 
for the purpose. The first time he ever saw the inside of 
a school-house, he was between nine and ten years of age. 
If I speak of my personal history to the extent of an 
inch in length, half an inch in width, and no depth at all, 
will you indulge me ? (Go on, go on !) 

I attended the District school two months and a half per 
year, till I was fifteen years of age. With the addition of 
five months instruction, I was a member of Harvard 
College. My father died when I was twelve years old. 
He left me one hundred pounds — not of silver, not of bank 
bills, but in the currency of the State. When I was fifteen, 
with what little perquisites I had, I was worth the immense 
sum of twenty-five dollars, and with that sum I fitted for 
College. (Applause.) I would say this to boys, if they 
are here, but for the parents who have boys, that they may 
apply the remark to the boys. 

I graduated at Harvard College some time before I was 
twenty-one. The first year after 1 left College, I passed 
six months teaching school, and five months in a Theolog- 
ical course ; and one month before my year was out, I 
stood where preachers stand. I did this by labor — intense 
labor. My mind was fixed on my object, and I went 
forward with all my might. In 1802, I bolted over the 
line which separates Massachusetts from New Hampshire, 
and there I settled in the ministry, and was there a quarter 
of a century, with a salary of four hundred dollars a year ; 
and it was but a short time, even then, before the people 
suspected that I was growing fat, and that I should get 
too fat if I kept in that course. But, my friends in 



65 

Princeton, I lived it through : I am alive yet, and I am 
here ready to testify to the necessity for, and success of 
mental labor. 

I will say one word respecting Princeton. I think it a 
place of remarkable stability. The mountains stand as 
they did ; the hills stand as they did; the streams of water 
run in their former course. There is no change in them. 
Yes, and Princeton is remarkable for its integrity. The 
farms are of the same extent and the same shape as they 
were when I was born. Scarcely a house is put up between 
a house for eighty years, except in some cases, in the 
middle of the town. And I can testify in behalf of the 
town — and when in my own region I have been disposed 
to compliment the town in which I originated, and myself 
with the same stroke — that Princeton is the Prince of 
towns for raising oxen, men, and stone wall. (Applause.) 

No. 3. The Town of Princeton — Receiving its name from an eminent 
minister of the Gospel, and an earnest advocate of civil and religious 
liberty, we are assured that her people will in future, as they have in times 
past, honor his name and character, by their zeal and efforts to extend the 
blessings of Christianity and liberty to all the human race. 

Rev. Dr. Allen, for many years a minister in India, 
responded. 

Mr. President, and Ladies and Gentlemen: What we 
have heard to-day concerning the individual whose name 
is here mentioned, an eminent minister of the Gospel, 
appears to render it unnecessary that I should say much 
concerning him beyond this, that he was one of the most 
distinguished ministers of the day. He was one of the 
largest proprietors of this town, and was father-in-law of the 
most eminent citizen of the town — Governor Gill. We 
have his likeness here, hanging before us, and we had, this 
forenoon, a bound volume of his sermons in his own hand- 
writing, and I understood that there was a printed volume 
also. So that we see he was an author before the public. 

He was one, every way, of nature's noblemen, and com- 
9 



66 

bined a rare asseroblage of qualities, as a patriot, a public 
man, and a minister of the Gospel, 

So, Princeton has a noble name ; and I may say further, 
that the first generation of people, as we have heard to-day, 
were noble men, zealous, yea, jealous for their rights, not 
only for their rights as citizens, but zealous and jealous for 
their religious rights also*. 

My memory, although it does not go back so far as that 
of our venerable friend who has just addressed you, 
extends back more than half a century, and very distinctly 
do 1 recollect things that I saw and heard at that time, and 
among them many sermons from Dr. Murdock, the minister 
at that time. I can remember among texts, the division of 
his subject, and his argument and illustrations very well. 
Some sermons that he preached in connection with foreign 
missions, made a deep impression on my mind. I remem- 
ber them more distinctly than anything I heard from him. 
He preached a series of sermons on the same subject, in 
connection with the first enterprise in this country for 
foreign missions. To carry out that enterprise, a subscrip- 
tion was taken up, and people were astonished at the 
amount received. This shows how strong a feeling there 
was among the people. One man said he did not think 
there was so much money in town, and another did not 
believe there was so much left in town. 

This spirit was kept in lively exercise for years, and I 
grew up under these impressions. And so it is not strange 
that, after having finished my college and professional 
course, I felt it my duty to engage in that cause ; and 
thirty-two years ago last Spring, I preached my farewell 
sermon in the church then on the hill yonder, and took 
leave of all my friends, as I supposed, for life. In a few 
days afterwards I embarked for a foreign mission. At that 
time, such an enterprise was quite a difFerent thing from 
what it is now, so little was then known of the heathen 
world. We found India, the country to which we went, 
very diflerent from what we had anticipated, about as 



67 

different as to costumes and customs as it was possible for 
people to be, and yet belong to the human family. But I 
had gone, as I believed, for a good purpose, and I at once 
adopted that country as my own, and such continued to 
be my views and feelings for more than a quarter of a 
century. India is a magnificent country ; with the highest 
mountains in the world ; rivers and plains, scarcely 
equalled by any in the world, in a higher state of cultiva- 
tion than is generally supposed ; a country full of people, 
containing a population six times as large as all the United 
States, and it was probably as populous two thousand 
years ago as it is now. And what is remarkable is, that 
that country, for so many years, had continued almost 
without change in its customs and manners, and in its 
social and religious institutions. 

In the providence of God, my health became so much 
impaired, that after using all the means I could in that 
country, I was informed that if I would preserve myself for 
anything more in life, or live any longer, I must leave that 
climate. I returned gradually, through Egypt, the western 
part of Asia, and the eastern and western parts of Europe, 
going slowly here and there, for the improvement 
of my health, so that I saw much of those parts of the 
world and people, who were Heathen, Mahomedan, and 
believers in different corrupt forms of Christianity. 

On returning to this country, I renewed my acquaint- 
ances with the people here, and I found them, as I had 
reason to expect, to be worthy of their parents. During 
my long absence, those whom I had known in their old age 
were all gone ; those who were then in middle age were, 
perhaps, half living, but greatly changed ; and another 
generation had grown up, who were not when I went 
away. But I found the people so well informed in respect 
to all the circle of benevolent efforts, that any person who 
did not know their parents, and what a strong hold the 
cause of benevolence had taken here, would have been 
greatly surprised. Such, I doubt not, is the character of 



68 

the people now, and such, I trust, it will continue to be for 
future generations. 

Not many years ago, I met a gentlemen, rather an intel- 
ligent and well-educated man, who said to me that he had 
become quite discouraged, that our great benevolent 
enterprises were proving a failure. Here, said he, the 
Anti-Slavery cause is likely to prove a failure ; then the 
Temperance cause and other causes were referred to in the 
same spirit. I told hira I had not those desponding views 
concerning them ; that I did not think the creation of the 
heavens and the earth, which God had pronounced '' good," 
again and again, and of which He had been and is still the 
governor, had proved to be a failure. I did not think 
Christianity, which was ushered into the world with the 
shouts of " glory to God in the highest ; on earth peace, 
and good-will toward men," had proved to be a failure. I 
did not think it ever would fail ; that so far from failing, it 
would prove the great power to raise men from oppression 
and sin ; that it had done a vast deal of good for the world, 
and would do much more. I did not think the efforts for 
liberty which our fathers made, had proved a failure, but 
that God had great and glorious purposes to accomplish 
yet by our nation. I am glad to say this gentleman did 
not belong to Princeton, and I hope none here ever will 
take such a view of Christianity, or of the state of the 
world, or of the governmeot of our country, as he did; 
but that you will all pray as fervently, and strive as 
earnestly as though all were depending upon you, and yet 
trust in God as implicitly for his blessing, as if nothing 
depended on you. Only go on in this spirit, pressing 
forward and looking upward, and all will be well with 3''0U, 
with your posterity, and with the world. (Applause.) 

No. 4. And I -will bring thy seed from the east ; with spikenard and 
safiron, calamus and cinnamon ; with all the trees of frankincense, 
myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices, with the powders of the 
merchant. 

Mr. Everett stated, that it was supposed that this senti- 



69 

ment would be responded to by Dr. Myron 0. Allen, of 
"Wenliam, a son of the gentlemen who had just spoken, 
born in India. He was not able to be present, but had 
sent a letter full of noble sentiments. He would read it. 

Wenham. Oct. 15th, 1859. 

J. T. Everett, Esq. : 

It is with deep regret that I find myself obliged to decline your 
kind invitation to attend the Centennial Celebration of the incorporation 
of Princeton. I cannot indeed claim it as my birth-place ; but as the 
residence of my ancestors, and the home of my early years, I shall always 
feel a deep and filial interest in the good old town. Its grand old hills, 
swept by the storms of centuries, have impressed their forms upon my 
mind with all the vividness of reality. Wachusett, Sugar Loaf, the lesser 
Wachusett, the old Meeting-House Hill, — I can see them yet, as vividly 
as if gazing from their bald and cloud-capped summits. 

Nor are the natural features of the place its only attractions. Those 
rugged hills have reared a race of men of clear heads and warm hearts, as 
well as of stalwart forms. Their kindness to me, a stranger and an orphan, 
will not soon be forgotten. 

The townahip is the foundation stone of all our fre3 institutions. These 
independent municipal corporations were, from their origin, republics in 
miniature. Their meeting — scenes, as they often were, of earnest conten- 
tion and even wrangling— were schools of republicanism. In them were 
trained the men who made laws, and erected the superstructure of our 
State and national institutions. Whoever would trace the history of 
" Liberty in America,'" must studj' the history of the towns ; he will find 
them, in miniature, the history of the nation. 

Well, then, may we celebrate the anniversary of our native town. Well 
may she call back her scattered sons, and there are many of whom she 
may be justly proud — they are her priceless jewels. A^isely may we medi- 
tate the stern virtues of our fathers — their example is our noblest 
inheritance. 

As you request a sentiment, I will venture to offer the following : 

The good old Town of Princeton — May she in the future, as in the past, 
be the nursery of men solid as her granite rocks, pure as her mountain 
rills, aspiring like her lofty hills, from the low cares and pleasures of earth 
to the atmosphere of heaven. The hills of the sunny South, the broad 
prairies of the West, the " coral stranas " of India, and the distant isles 
of the ocean rise and call her blessed. 

With sentiments of much respect, truly yours, 

MYRON 0. ALLEN. 

J. T. Everett, Esq., Chairman of Committee on Toasts, &c. 



70 

No. 5. Our Native and Natural Productions — While time and experi- 
ence have taught us the great worth of our Fullers, our Woods, our 
Bangs, Moores, Aliens, Russells and Everetts ; our Flocks and Herds ; our 
Wheat, Barley and Corn, we are yet in doubt as to the real qualities of 
our Cobb. 

The President — And we propose, now, to test the 
quality of the Cobb — not the ordinary cob, ladies and 
gentlemen, but the Major Gohh. (Laughter.) 

Thus plainly called for. Major Moses G. Cobb, of Dor- 
chester, a descendant, by one of the branches of the family, 
from Hon. Moses Gill, whose name he bears, came forward 
and said : 

Mr. President, and Ladies and Gentlemen of Princeton : 
What a theme the sentiment proposes for research and for 
thought. The farmers of Princeton can scarcely expect me 
to enter into a discussion of the merits of Agriculture. 
You are an agricultural township, as the orator has well 
said to-day ; you are essentially an agricultural town. I 
can only hope that sooner or later, every State in the 
Union will have an agricultural department in its executive 
government, as ours has, and that the national executive 
will have, as a branch of its fostering care and solicitude, 
an agricultural department. You, farmers of Princeton, 
have no cause for reproach in this respect. I believe that 
you always honored and fostered the science of agricul- 
ture. Cattle-Show day, at Worcester, Mr. President, is 
among the ineffaceable memories of my boyhood. I can, 
even now, feel the pride with which I used to point out to 
the boys less fortunate than myself, as I supposed, the 
beautiful products of Princeton ; its handsome cattle, its 
vegetables, its grains, its almost word-renowned butter and 
cheese, and if I remember rightly, sir, its good old-fashioned 
brown bread, made by the housewives and daughters of 
Princeton, in a large measure, sir, out of that staple of 
Princeton — Indian corn. But at no time do I remember 
to have seen exhibited there, any Cobbs. (Laughter.) 



71 

I have been aware of the skill, the enterprise, the energy 
of the Princeton farmers, and the perfection to which they 
have brought every branch of agriculture, leaving nothing 
untried which ought to be tried, and trying only those that 
should be. I am aware, sir, of the increased value, as an 
article of human diet, both in this country and the old, of 
Indian corn, the exports having increased in five years — 
from 1851 to 1857 — from one million five hundred thousand 
bushels, to over seven million five hundred thousand 
bushels ; and the export of Indian meal has increased in 
the same ratio. But I believe it remained for the Princeton 
farmers to test the quality of Cobbs. On this matter of 
Cobbs, I believe I have nothing to be ashamed of in my 
ancestry. Mr. Samuel Cobb, who was quite an early 
settler in the south-western part of this town, and who 
was the progenitor of the Princeton Cobbs, was a worthy, 
sober, well-to-do farmer, and came here from Cape Cod. I 
believe all the Cobbs in the country came from that section 
of the State. I believe all the Cobbs, male and female, 
have been industrious, honest, sober people, fulfilling the 
trust imposed uj)on them ; and now and then a Cobb has 
stood out from the general mass of mankind. I will say 
no more of the family of Cobbs, except to add, that it is 
a great source of regret to me that there is no family 
bearing my name in Princeton. 

As for myself, I have come up here to-day, — and I do not 
know that I shall ever repay the debt of gratitude I owe 
the citizens of Princeton, who have allowed me to do it, — 
I have come up to look out upon one of the most beautiful 
panoramas in the world, almost, the charm of my boy- 
hood, to breathe its pure and bracing air with the 
companions of my youth ; to see the '' old folks," and shake 
them by the hand ; and, let me say, they do not appear a 
day older than when I was a boy. 

I feel grateful that my boyhood was in this place, where 
I could trace my home, by metes and bounds, not by a 
figure on the wall, or on a door, and I have resolved to-day, 



72 

that, sooner or later, I shall make my home again in 
Princeton. (Applause.) 

But, sir, another source of sorrow and regret has come 
over me to-day. My friend, the Orator of the day, really 
destroyed my dinner by informing me, seriously, that there 
was a vote passed in 1760, to this effect : That the meeting- 
house be painted, provided the Hon. Moses Gill will furnish 
the paint. Now, I am indirectly a descendant of that 
honorable gentleman. His name has descended to me, but 
none of his money, and I was alarmed, at first, to think, 
that this day, and here, that old resolve should be brought 
forward, and I be called upon to paint the meeting-house. 
I found out, however, I thought, a way of escape. There 
is nowhere a resolve that the house shall be painted. I 
also remembered the reply of the Irishman to the farmer, 
who complained that he had not dug his potatoes as he 
was expected to do. Said he : '' If you want your pota- 
toes dug, fetch 'em along." So I say, if you want your 
house painted, fetch it down to Boston, and I will see that 
it is painted. (Laughter.) 

Let me give this sentiment in conclusion : 

The Farmers of Princeton — The most economical people in the world. 
They not only know how to raise and shell their corn in the best manner, 
but they make mince-meat of their Cobbs. 

(Great Laughter.) 

No. 6. The Chair makers of East Princcto7i — May they always be of 
good, substantial timber, free from all the knots and shakes of bad timber 
and miscalculation. May their backs not be too crooked to permit them to 
stand erect and boldly against all vice. May thay be shaved and turned 
to the perfect model of integrity and virtue, and use just enough of the 
sand-paper of self-denial to smooth off all the rough corners of intemper- 
ance, and the use of the weed. INIay the glue of their friendship and love 
hold them together, and firmly unite them in the pure bonds of wedlock. 
May they never be stained with crime, but beautifully painted with the 
graces of humility and charity, and ornamented with the gold-leaf of 
Christian benevolence and world-wide philanthropy. In short, in their 
whole model, manufacture, and finish, may they be done up Brown. Nye, 
more ! May they be like the faithful Stewarts, improving their ten talents, 
and, in old age, recline in the easy chairs of competence and comfort, and 



73 

in their final exit, may they all obtain seats in that glorious train, -whose 
conductors are the angels of light, and whose depot is the paradise of God. 

This sentiment was received with applause. 

The President — I am sorry there is no one here who can 
rise from his seat in response to this sentiment, brace his 
back, extend his arm, and give us a " stretcher." 

One of the manufacturers alluded to in the sentiment, it 
was hoped would be present to respond ; but as neither of 
them was present, Mr. Brown, of East Princeton, said : 

I find myself, ladies and gentlemen, very much in the 
position of the schoolmaster of old times. You recollect 
it was the custom to make considerable preparation for 
examination, and it was thought best by some, where they 
had not made much advancement, to let each member of 
the school know his position, so that he could answer the 
question given him readily. Well, it so happened, one of 
the boys was taken sick, and the teacher did not recollect 
that, and put the questions in their order, one of which 
related to the Catholic Church. When that question was 
put, there was no response ; but finally a boy spoke up and 
said : " The boy who believes in the Catholic Church, is at 
home, sick abed." So it appears there is no response 
here, because the gentleman who was expected to do it is 
absent. 

Mr. Mirick, of East Princeton, read a rhymed response 
from J. W. Nye, who was not able to be present. 

When God in Eden's pleasant bowers 

Placed the first happy, human pair, 
I wonder how they passed the hours 

Without a settee or a chair ! 

Perchance some stone or mound sufficed 

To sit upon while living there ; 
They doubtless would have been surprised 

If they had seen a Princeton chair. 
10 



74 

Now men, alas, have learned to cheat, 

And little for each other care ; 
And manufacturers compete 

In turning out the cheapest chair. 

Within our humble vale we'll strive 

To busy be, and banish care, 
We also calculate to drive 

Up nothing but a first rate chair. 

Thanks for the sentiment so kind,- — 

So full of wishes good and rare, 
And may its author ever find. 

When he sits down, an easy chair. 

No. 7. The Natural Scenery of Princeton — While her hills and valleys 
spread out for the eye of man a rich and bounteous feast. Old Wachusett, 
robed in beauty and grandeur, sits Queen of the scene, and with her 
waving forest beckons all true lovers of nature to the banquet. 

The President called upon Thomas H. Russell, Esq., of 
Boston, to respond. 

It is no easy matter, Mr. President, to respond, in suitable 
terms, to this remembrance of the chief distinction in our 
natural scenery. It would doubtless be best done in the 
fewest words. Nothing better can be said, than, there it 
stands — it speaks for itself. Whether I say so or not, there 
it does stand, and does speak for itself. It were safe to 
attempt a word in behalf of our " Old Wachusett," behind 
its back, or in its absence. 

I have had the opportunity of seeing something of the 
mountain scenery of New England and its vicinity ; and 
while the Holyoke, the Catskill, the Kearsage, the Monad- 
nock, the Green, the Red, and the White, have, each and 
all, varying characteristics of beauty and grandeur, none 
surpass our own Wachusett in its most marked and notice- 
able features of beauty and loveliness. A well defined, 
isolated, symmetrical cone, rising far above all immediate 
surroundings, it opens to the view a complete and unbroken 
circle. In the midst of a country fully and completely 
subdued to the uses of civilized life, it presents, in no 



75 

view, anything of the wild or solitary ; covered with a 
primeval growth of forest from base to summit, it reveals 
nothing rugged, and, in the symmetrical outline of its 
ascent, loses even the true measure of its massive propor- 
tions. It has not, in this hilly country, the more extensive 
water views of some of its rivals ; but few can lay claim to 
so exclusive a local pre-eminence. As one stands on its 
well defined summit, the eye rests on no view-obstructing 
neighbor ; the heavens spring from an horizon, a seeming 
true level, and arch above in a perfect hemisphere ; the 
distant surface of the eiirth from the same horizon, seeming 
at the observer's own level, (I know not by what visual 
law,) sweeps down in a perfect concave to the mountain 
in its center. As one turns on this center of a seeming 
grand concave, the eye travels a complete panoramic circle 
of loveliness ; an unbroken range of town and village, 
lawn, field, and forest, with silver tracery of streams ; and, 
here and there dotting the surface, now expanding, and 
now hiding in some woody recess, many sweet lakes, in 
their placid waters mirroring all surrounding beauty ; while 
everywhere are seen evident marks of the human industry, 
that has subdued and rules over all. 

Standing on some of our New England mountains, and 
looking upon a vast surrounding of mountain upon moun- 
tain, and wild unbroken forest, without sign of man, the 
mind is oppressed with the solitary grandeur and sublimity 
of the scene, and the awfulness of the presence ; but on 
the Wachusett, you feel that grandeur is refined of all 
that is fearful, and one seems to repose as on the ancient 
watch-tower of the vineyard, in the very midst of a scene 
of peace, life, and loveliness. 

Mr. President, those of us to whom the natural scenery 
we look upon to-day is the first we saw of all the great 
and beautiful works of God, may well love these hills and 
valleys. We may be pardoned if we dispute the right of 
distant or other lands or scenes, to diminish ought of that 
aifection and regard. 



76 

It is needless to make a Aveary pilgrimage to the desolate 
banks ot the Nile, — to seek a crumbling pyramid, buried 
sphinx, or enigmatical hieroglyphic of perished nations, — to 
delve in the sands of Euphrates' bank, or to climb to the 
storyless ruins of Baelbec, — it is needless to do all, or any 
of these things, to stand in the presence of the venerable 
past, and look on the face of the ancient. 

Would you look on the venerable — the ancient? Look 
about you. Have you never thought that, before the 
history of our race began, — before Moses gave the deca- 
logue to the descendants of Abraham, — before Persian or 
Greek, Rome or Carthage strove for the mastery of the 
world, this old sentinel commenced its long watch over 
these hills and valleys ? May not the waters of a general 
flood have rolled and surged over its top ? Have not the 
storms of six thousand winters beat upon it, and six 
thousand summers fanned it with their SAveet breath? 
What if no human eye rested on it for long ages, and these 
lovely habitations, the great architect prepared for man, 
waited long their coming tenants, even their savage 
precursors of civilized life ? " A thousand years are as 
one day," and " one day as a thousand years" with him, in 
whose mysterious Providence 

*' Full many a gem of purest ray serene, 
The dark, unfathomed caves of ocean bear ; 

Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, 
And waste its sweetness on the desert air." 

How shortly after the discovery of this Continent, this 
eminence became known, is not certain. Certain it is, that 
Governor Winthrop, as early as 1631, January 27, and some 
company with him, ascended Charles river, eight miles 
beyond Watertown, and there, on the west side of a hill, 
on a very high rock, they *' might see all over Neipnett, 
and a very high hill due west, about forty miles off." 

This was our Wachusett two hundred and twenty-eight 
years ago, — away back almost to the days of good Queen 



77 

Bess, — eleven years after the landing of Plymouth, and 
almost the time of the settlement of Boston. How much 
of the world's history has transpired since Governor 
Winthrop, on that Wednesday, more than two centuries 
ago, looked on yonder, to us, familiar mountain, — a period 
almost spanning the civilized history of the Western 
Continent. It has witnessed the birth and vigorous growth 
of the western nations, as it had before witnessed the all 
unwritten history of that strange people who possessed 
the land before us, and yet seems to-day no older. 

Sir, the great duties of life, are not those to which the 
heart most willingly turns. It marks the beneficence of 
the Author of the Universe, that above this fundamental 
permanency , of nature, there rests a mantle of change. 
The phenominal world is all change. The day has a 
morning, noon, night ; the year a Spring, a Summer, a 
Winter. Life has an infancy of weakness, a manhood of 
strength, an age of decay and death. If all about us were 
permanent, — no falling leaf — no darkening evening — no 
decay or death of beauty — no alarm to break our repose, — 
man would be in danger of forgetting the great purpose of 
his being, and in fancied fruition of a fleeting present, fail 
to lay hold of the permanent and eternal. 

It is the benevolence of God that, while we gather here 
to-day, is mantling thus our hoary monitor in his garments 
ot bright, but swift passing beauty, — benevolence, that 
awakens a new life with an opening Spring, clothes a 
world in beauty, and swift turns that beauty to ashes. 

" Where are the flowers, the fair young flowers, 

That lately sprang and stood 
In brighter light and softer airs, 

A beauteous sisterhood ? 
Alas ! they all are in their graves ; 

The gentle race of flowers 
Are lying in their lowly beds, 

With the fair and good of ours." 

How largely we ourselves participate in this element of 
change. On these hills we have played away our youth — 



78 

we cannot come back and play away our age. Our com- 
panions are gone, — the sports of youth have no longer 
keenness and relish. We looked then on children, and 
now, coming back, can hardly believe they are men. The 
fresh bloom we used to see and look for — ah ! it belongs 
now to other and new faces. We knock at this door and 
that, but no familiar form responds. Alas ! the places that 
once knew them know them no more — and so one hundred 
years. 

The fathers — where are they? The children — their 
children's children — where are they ? Three generations 
have now lived under the shadow of this goodly mountain ; 
have looked on its familiar face ; have struggled with life 
and its duties, as we do now ; have cherished its hopes, its 
affections, and borne its griefs, disappointments and 
sorrows ; have tilled these fair lands, and peacefully rest 
in the bosom of mother earth. 

Life is a warfare that knows no rest. The order is 
always, Twarc/i .' We are of the grand procession of our 
country. The youngest of us begin to feel the pressure, 
and hear the admonitory steps of those who come after us. 
Happy, indeed, if, as we pass along this day under the 
shadow of our native Wachusett, we seize the great lesson 
of the moment. Mark the swinging pendulum of Summer 
and Winter, sunshine and shadow, that measures off" the 
days of the year, as of our fathers. They sleep — ours 
to-day the battle of life. If I may be permitted with a text 
to put an end to a discourse, perhaps too largely tinged 
with the hues of surrounding nature to indicate the thought 
I would bear away from these pleasant festivities — from 
these sacred memories — as our fresh purpose, as we lead the 
van a second coming century, I would say: ''Whatsoever 
things are true, whatsoever things are Jionest, whatsoever 
things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever 
things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if 
there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on 
these things," 



79 

No. 8. The Young Ladies of Princeton — May their virtucB be larger 
than their skirts, and their faults smaller even than their bonnets. 

(Laughter.) 

No. 9. The Mothers of Princeton — As patterns of virtuous industrj;, of 
mental and moral worth, may they be reproduced in each succeeding 
generation. 

No. 10. To-day, while we thank God that our cup of blessings is so 
full,' let us also pray, that each succeeding generation may possess a 
Fuller. 

Eetsponse by Rev. Arthur B. Fuller, of Watertown. 

Mj'. President, and Ladies and Gentlemen : — It seems to 
me that history is ever repeating itself, and as though we 
had, to-day, one instance of which Solomon tells us is a 
truth, that '' there is nothing new under the sun." It is 
not the first time that a Rev. Mr. Fuller has addressed the 
inhabitants of Princeton, although this Mr. Fuller has 
never had the pleasure of seeing them face to face before, 
or of grasping their hands, and telling them that those 
who bear the name and cherish the memory of their first 
minister, cherish, also, a love for this place and this people. 

I have been very much gratified, Mr. President, in 
coming here, and gratified with what I have heard and 
what I have seen. I might pass some few criticisms on 
this place, if I chose. I might go back to Boston, and say 
that everybody who came here '' got high." I had to — I 
think every one does who succeeds in reaching this ele- 
vated place. I might, too, go to State street, or Wall 
street, and tell our merchants, if they want to " raise the 
wind," they had better come here. (Laughter.) 

I was a little fearful for the practical result of my poet- 
ical friend's address. He talked about squeezing hands ; 
but I found I got squeezed all over in passing through the 
crowded aisles of your church, this morning. Truly, there 
I found a warm welcome, even on this cold and windy day. 

I believe a part of my grandfather's ministry here was 
a stormy one, and I was gratified when I received a note 



80 

from your Committee, inviting me here to say a few words 
in reference to him. 

I was glad to hear my friend, Major Cobb, '' shell out," 
so abundantly, the kernels, out of which good intellectual 
bread could be made. Yes, it has been pleasant to see my 
classmates here to-day, — the friend who preceded me,(T. H. 
Russell, Esq.,) and my friend Cobb, — and that our good class 
of 1843 was thus represented here by us three — a trinity 
that I can believe in — three in one — three persons, but one 
in purpose, mind and spirit. But I did not come up here 
to speak in this strain. As I was thinking of coming, I 
was asked by your Orator, for some ancient documents 
which were in my possession. I was astonished, on 
searching an old trunk in my attic, to see how many vener- 
able papers, pertaining to your history, I had inherited. I 
have in my hand the first Covenant* of this church, with 
the names of the original settlers on it. Here is the name 
of Robert Keyes, whose lost daughter has been so touch- 
ingly alluded to, in the Oration and Poem of to-day. Here, 
too, are the names of Mirick, and Mosman, and Hastings, 
and many another of your early settlers, written in their 
own hands. 

Here is the first Thanksgiving Sermon ever preached in 
this place. I have, too, an ancient deed — a certified copy 
— by which Wachusett mountain was given to my grand- 
father, and I have come to look after my property a little, 
to know whether it has been entered upon, and whether 
my timber has been, any of it, removed, without my 
consent. I fear, alas, that some subsequent deed, however, 
makes that beautiful mountain the property of some other 
than me. 

I have, also, here, a letter from Governor Gill, presenting 
the first Bible ever publicly read in this town ; and, also, 
mentioning to my grandfather a very beautiful lady, who 



*This document, with that recording the marriages and deaths of the first settlers, 
was presented, by Mr. Fuller, to the first church, through Kev. Mr. Briggs, at the 
close of the Centennial Celebration. 



81 

resided out of Princeton, I am sorry to say, and whom Mr. 
Gill believed would have made my grandfather a most 
excellent wife. 

Here, too, is a newspaper, which was conned diligently, 
and contains an account of the Massacre in Boston, March 
5th, 1770. This is the only copy that came into this town. 
It was gazed at by eager eyes, till hearts throbbed and 
tears wet the page. It told of slaughter, and an event 
which made the heart beat high, and the ver}'- turf throb 
beneath their feet ; and ultimately, doubtless, influenced 
them to go where they could, as soldiers, avenge that and 
other later atrocious crimes against liberty. 

But I wish to establish definitely the fact, that my grand- 
father was a true patriot in those " times which tried men's 
souls," and in favor of the great principles of the Declara- 
tion of Independence. As a specimen of some of the 
arguments used to create a contrary impression at the 
time, I will state one. A man got up in town meeting here, 
in 1775, and said: "I know Mr. Fuller is not pious, and is 
a Tory, for I caught hold of him suddenly, the other 
evening, and in his surprise, he said : ' Let alone of me, 
by George ! ' Now as he said ' by,' he could not be pious ; 
and he must have meant George the Third, and of course, 
then, if he would swear by him, he must be a Tory." Such, 
sir, were the ridiculous arguments, which were deemed 
sufficient, in the excited, almost frantic period of which I 
am speaking, when a righteous jealousy for freedom, 
assuredly led to some unjust suspicions of those no less 
friendly to liberty than the most zealous patriots of 
Princeton. 

But, on this subject, I propose not simply to make cor- 
rections, but to give proof, and that of an undeniable 
character — proof in the handwriting of my grandfather, 
giving his public declaration of his opinions, read in open 
town meeting, in 1775, These papers were not put upon 
record then, though referred to in the town records. It 
was Buflfered to be lost, but, fortunately, I have the 
11 



82 

original document in my hand, here and now. It explains 
every circumstance which made Rev. Timothy Fuller sus- 
pected then, and clearly declares his agreement with the 
principles of the Revolution, and his readiness, even, to 
fight in their behalf. 

I have come to vindicate his memory; and it is as impor- 
tant for you to know, that you never had a minister who 
was not true to liberty, as it is for me to be able to say 
that I had no such ancestor. Let me, then, read from these 
ancient documents, the originals of which were once read in 
Princeton, in 1775. 

" To the Committee of Correspondence, Mr. Thomson, Chairman, to be 
laid before the Toivn : — 

Gentlemen : 

I am very much surprised to find that any among you should 
suspect me of entertaining Principles inconsistent with ye cause of liberty, 
since I have uniformly espoused and supported it, both in public and 
private, from ye very beginning of our controversy with Great Britain. 

I have always submitted to ye advice of Gongresses, both provincial and 
continental ; subscribed with my Hand ye Non Importation and Non Con- 
sumption agreement ; strictly adhered to it ; have never opposed any 
public Measure taken to preserve ye Rights and Privileges of ye People ; 
and though I have thought that ye people have run into some Irregular- 
ities, yet not more than might be exjiected irom every opposition to 
unconstitutional and oppressive acts of Government. It has always been 
my firm Opinion, that ye Parliament of Great Britain, in exercising ye 
Right claimed of binding America in all cases whatsoever, would reduce 
us to absolute Slavery. I liave, years ago, laid aside ye use of Tea, and 
urged you to do ye same, that we might defeat their Design of raising a 
Revenue from us, encouraged our manufactures, and pressed a Union in 
this and all ye Colonies, that our Resistance might be formidable and 
successful. ###****# 

I think we have Reason and a Right to Complain, and when our Com- 
plaints are not heard, and our Grievances redressed, we have a Right to 
resist. We of Right ought to be as free as ye People of England, accor- 
ding to Charter. ###*### 

I am sorry to be so unhappy as to fall under the suspicion of being un- 
friendly to ye Common cause. I believe I am as hearty a Lover of my 
Country, as any among you, or any in ye Country. I am ready, when 
Necessary, to fight in ye Defense of it, and of Religion. I think ministers 
are not called to War, unless ye rest of ye Community are unable to 
defend it without them, and in such a case I am ready to do my part ; I 



83 

would not count my Life dear to me, but would brave every Danger of 

In conclusion : '' What your design is in calling me in Question, I may 
not determine. If any were so mistaken aijd ignorant of my Principles, 
as to be really jealous, I am sorry ; but I am Avilling to give account of 
myself, without being oflfended, and am persuaded that what I have 
offered above will give you entire Satisfaction as to my firm attachment 
to ye Principles of civil liberty, and to remove every doubt fi-om your 
minds; if not, I am willing to carry ye matter before the provisional or 

continental Congress. 

TIMOTHY FULLER. 
Prixcetox, May 29, 1779." 

This was read, June 2d, 1775, to the town. Another 
paper was sent to the same Committee, to be laid before 
the town, June 7th, of which I give the most important 
part. 

" To the Committee, William Thomson, Chairman, to be laid before the 
Town : — 

Gextlemex : 

I beg Leave now, to make some Additions with respect to sev- 
eral things in the Paper which I read to ye Town, on Friday last. I do 
not believe ye Parliament of Great Britain hath any Right to make any 
Law whatever binding on ye Colonies, nor to lay any Taxes or duties on 
us, without our Consent. I am clearly of opinion, that ye acts, called ye 
Boston Port Bill, that for Altering the Government of this Province, and 
that for sending Criminals to Great Britain for Tryal, and ye Quebec bill, 
are unreasonable and unjust, and what ye Parliament have no right to 
enact, and that ye Colonies are so far from being obliged to submit to 
them, that it would be criminal in them, and they would be ruined by 
such submission. It is our Duty, at present, to unitedly exert ourselves to 
ye utmost, with Dependence on the blessing of Heaven on our righteous 
Cause, to resist, by Force and Arms, the Execution of those Acts. I look 
upon it (as) a favorable Providence, that the Colonies of this Continent, 
and this in particular, are generally so happily agreed in asserting and 
defending our civil and religious Rights, against ye Invasions of the 
British Ministry and Parliament, and their venal Army. It is, I think, 
ye Duty of every man to encourage, and according to his Ability, to 
promote ye Success of ye Army, now raised by this Colony, for its neces- 
sary Safety and Defense." 

I think a man who is ready, if necessary, to fight for the 
cause, or who ofi"ers himself as a Chaplain in her army, 
would be acknowledged as a true patriot. And it is 



84 

gratifying to know, that the people of Princeton came to the 
same conclusion in after years, that he dwelt here among 
you, and was chosen your Representative to the Conven- 
tion, Governor Gill being the rival candidate. Nor can I 
feel other than an honorable pride, in saying, that his 
descendants have uniformly loved liberty. It was a grand- 
daughter of your first minister, who sought to staunch the 
wounds of those who were fighting in the cause of liberty 
in a foreign land, who remained in the city of Rome, 
during its eventful seige, in 1848, and did all a brave and 
noble woman could do for the cause of liberty. Such 
noble fruit could have grown on no unworthy tree of 
ancestors ; and I rejoice to say, as a matter of simple truth 
and justice, that the principles of freedom, cherished by 
my ancestors, have been, and are cherished by all his 
descendants, and that to-day, however on other points they 
may differ, there is not one who does not long for the 
diffusion of civil and religious liberty, in our own and all 
lands, till at last your sun shall not rise on a tyrant or 
master, or rest on any who are oppressed or enslaved. 

No. 11. Bachelors — Left alone, as they wish, will have no history in the 
next celebration. 

There was no response. 

No. 12. The Medical Profession — The ignorance of mankind with ref- 
erence to the laws of life and health, creates its necessity. In the good 
time coming, their prescriptions will be preventatives of, rather than 
cures for, disease. Till then, may their pills and powders be harmless. 

To this sentiment, Dr. Nathan Allen, of Lowell, 
responded. He said : 

I wish to speak a few words, as the only representative 
of my profession present ; and I wish to speak in behalf of 
the town, in reference to medicine and health. We had, 
in the address this forenoon, an account of a physician who 
occupied the chair in town meetings, and held many high 
ofiices. For the last hundred years, we have had a noble 
order of men, well educated in the medical profession, here. 



85 

I believe there has been no irregular practitioners in this 
town, and it has been remarkable for being a healthful 
place. 

I wish to state three facts. The first is, that, according 
to the statistics, there has not been a town in this County, 
that could compare with this in respect to healthfulness. 
The rate of mortality is less than in any other toAvn, 
being only one in ninety-three, for many years. But in 
Sterling, it is one in sixty-seven ; in Holden, one in fifty- 
six ; in Westminster, one in seventy-five ; in Worcester, 
one in forty-eight ; while in Boston, it is one in thirty- 
eight. I find on turning to the record of deaths, last year, 
that seventeen persons died, of whom eight were over 
seventy years of age, and three were between eighty-five 
and ninety. 

Another fact is, that the average length of life here, has 
been remarkable. This we can show by the ages of 
persons who have died in a long series of years. The 
average age here has been over fifty years, while in all 
the other towns of the County, it has been less. In Wor- 
cester, it has been but twenty-two years, so that persons 
may expect to live twice as long here as in Worcester. 
There have been but two epidemics here in many years. 

Another fact, which is creditable to this town, is that a 
large donation was given, many years ago, by one of the 
citizens of this town, Dr. Ward Nicholas Boylston, for the 
benefit of the medical profession of this State. That 
donation was given in such a way that large sums are 
distributed annually, for the encouragement of students of 
the medical profession. That sum, put to interest at the 
time it was given, would now amount to more than seventy 
thousand dollars. 

We see why it is that people will come here from abroad ; 
and they will come more and more, where such fresh air, 
and such wholesome diet may be obtained. People who 
live here do not realize, nor have any adequate idea of 
their privileges. 



86 

Only five or six persons from this town, have entered 
the medical profession. When I have looked at the history 
of this town, and considered its advantages with reference 
to health, I felt proud to refer to it. 

I Avill merely add a sentiment : 

The Inhabitants of Princeton, and the Medical Profession — May their 
relations in the next hundred years, show as much consistency and liber- 
ality as they have in the past hundred years. 

No. 13. The next Centennial Anniversary — May our children have 
reason to venerate us, as we to-day do our fathers. 

No. 14. Princeton'' s Sons — May their aim be as high, their view as 
broad, and their principles as firm and deep-rooted, as their own Wachusett. 

To this sentiment, John A. Dana, Esq., of Worcester, 
responded as follows : 

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: — I congratulate 
you upon the success of this Celebration. Most heartily 
do I thank you and the people of this my native town, for 
this opportunity to exchange with each other kindly 
greetings and joyful congratulations. Pausing here for a 
little, at the close of the first century of our town's history, 
recalling pleasant reminiscences of the past, and with 
mutual good wishes for the future, we will gather new 
strength to go forth to its duties, with a stronger heart, 
and a fuller confidence. 

Sir, I Avill yield to no one, in the strong attachment I 
feel for the place of my birth, the home of my boyhood, 
the scene of my early joys, and my boyish griefs. My 
feelings to-day are keenly alive to the sentiment of 
Goldsmith's lines : 

" Where'er I roam, whatever realms to see, 
My heart, untravel'd, fondly turns to thee. 

Such is the patriot's boast, where'er we roam, 
His first, best country, ever is at home. 

Thus every good his native wilds impart 
Imprints the patriot passion on his heart ; 
And e'en those ills that round his mansion rise, 
Enhance the bliss his scanty fund supplies ; 
Dear is that ahed to which his soul conforms, 



87 

And dear that hill ^Yhich lifts hiin to the storms ; 
And as a child, when searing sounds molest, 
Clings close and closer to the mother's breast — 
So the loud torrent and th3 whirlwind's roar, 
But bind him to his native mountains more." 

The sentiment to which you do me the honor to invite me 
to respond, brings me back to my home, by the reference 
you have made to that mountain, to which I have so often 
looked when away, and to which I have, with a glow of 
pride, pointed many as my native mountain. Why, sir, the 
time has been, when I thought it the highest mountain in 
the world ! However much wiser I may be to-day in this 
respect, I have never seen, nor do I ever expect to see, 
any mountain whose view will stir in my heart more 
pleasant emotions, than are always excited when I look 
upon its familiar face. It is an honest old mountain, and 
if it is not quite so high as some, I am sure it is as old as 
any, and will last as long. But, sir, the sentiment looks to 
something else ; it looks to the end and object of all our 
lives, and the means by which we may make them a success. 
As a life without purpose can never be useful, so, without 
a broad view, and a firm foundation on fixed principles 
of action, it can never be successful. 

The young are often told to set their aims high. Often 
have I heard it in that little red school-house, and this was 
told us in such a way, that we were led to think that the 
wise course was to fix the mind upon some particular 
object, some place of honor or trust, some high position 
of power or influence, — that we should single out some one 
of these, as a particular object of pursuit, to attain which, 
all our energies should be directed. 

I do not intend to usurp the prerogative of the pulpit, 
and read you a sermon on this occasion, though it is much 
easier to preach than to practice. But I will suggest 
whether we should not labor to inculcate in others, and 
whether each should not bring himself to feel that all the 
objects of life, worthy of pursuit by a rational being, should 
be pursued as a means to an end, and not the end itself, 



and that end a two-fold one, — self-culture and development 
in the individual, and usefulness to mankind. 

Now we all know, that but few can attain to places of 
eminence, as commonly received and understood. How 
few of the many who start in the race for wealth, power 
or station, attain the position for which they strive. They 
all start with high hopes, with a high, it may be with a 
noble, ambition. The motto with them is, " aut Ccesar, 
aut niillus/' and they usually verify the motto — but their 
verification is very unfortunate. 

What I would urge is, that each should endeavor to 
develop in himself a complete manhood ; that each should 
inculcate all the faculties of his nature, — physical, mental 
and moral, — by such pursuits as are best fitted to his par- 
ticular organization, without regard to any particular end 
to be attained, but the general one I have named, and we 
shall find we have each a position of greatness, which will 
well reward all our labor. By such a course as this, we 
shall all find enough to do at home ; we shall all have a 
business for life on our hands. We need not go far in 
search of labor or duty ; it lies all around us, and the 
future, about which we have so much solicitude, will become 
the present, for the surest way to know our duty in the 
future, is to do the duty that lies next us. 

And we shall also find, that true greatness lies not in 
any particular station in life, but in every station. It 
needs not wealth or rank to give it power ; it has a power 
all its own. It shines as well in the cottage of the poor, 
as in the mansion of the rich. 

" What tho' on hamely fare we dine, 

Wear hoddin grey and a' that ; 
Gie fools their silk and knaves their wine, 

A man^s a man for a' that. 
An honest man tho' e'er sae poor, 

Is king of men for a' that." 

I close with this sentiment : 

His aims are high who aims a complete, perfect manhood. His view 
must be broad, and his principles firm, who will attain it. 



89 

No. 15. Our Festal Day — "We, this day, tie the nuptial knot between 
the past and coming century. And our Mother,* though hoary with age, 
is, (we are happy to know,) vigorous and blithe as ever, and many of her 
sons and daughters are present to grace the ceremony. 

It was expected this sentiment would have been re- 
sponded to by Colonel Howe, of Rutland ; but owing to 
the lateness of the hour, he was obliged to leave the house, 
before the sentiment was read. 

The following is a volunteer sentiment, left by Colonel 
Howe : 

The Citizens of Princeton — Their past has been marked by enterprise, 
benevolence, nnd prosperity. May their future be distinguished by all 
those virtues which elevate and adorn the human family. 

No. 16. The Wachusett Comet Band — May their lives be so pure, and 
their strains of music so ennobling, that this old monarch of hills shall 
proudly own his namesake. 

Responded to by the Band. 

The meeting then adjourned till seven o'clock in the 
evening. 



EVENING MEETING. 



At a little after seven o'clock, the Church was pretty 
well filled again, agreeably to the adjournment, and the 
President, having called the meeting to order, said : 

Ladies and Gentlemen: — Permit me, once more, in 
behalf of our vigilant Committee of Arrangements, in 
behalf of the legal voters of Princeton, by whose act we 
have this day assembled, to extend to you the right hand 

*A large portion of Princeton was, at its incorporation, taken from Rutland. 

12 



90 

of fellowship, and to tliank you all for the interest you 
have taken, on this occasion, which interest has brought 
you together again this evening, to listen to these closing 
services. It was a custom of our fathers, to look to God 
in all their town meetings, — to that Being whose mercies 
are new every morning, and fresh every evening and every 
moment. Shall we, in imitation of their example, look to 
Him on this occasion ? Will Rev. Mr. Cowles lead us in 
prayer ? 

Prayer was then offered by Rev. John P. Cowles, of 
Ipswich, a former Pastor in Princeton. 

After music by the Band, the next regular sentiment 
was read, as follows : 

No. 17. The Second Centennial Celebration — The heroic and successful 
resistance of our ancestoi'S to British tj'rannj', secured freedom to one race 
of one age. May it be the glad privilege of those who shall stand here 
to celebrate one hundred years this day, that the nobler patriotism, and 
holier self-sacrifice of the friends of unrestricted human rights in this 
country, have bequeathed impartial liberty to every tribe of every race, 
forevermore. 

Mr. E. H. Hetwood, of Worcester, called upon to 
respond, said: 

It may seem unfortunate that it should fall to me " to 
give the improvement," as the old Puritans would say, of 
the sentiment just read, fellowshipped as I am with a class 
of persons who have the reputation of not being very 
economical of truth, who sometimes have a weakness for 
telling the whole truth, in dealing with the question of 
freedom. I appreciate the feelings of that slip of the 
clerical profession, who, caught holding forth in strait 
Puritan Boston, without proper authority, was called to 
order by one who sat in Moses' seat. •' But don't the 
Bible say, we must preach the Gospel to every critter?" 
asked the sprig. '^ Yes," replied the venerable divine ; 
" but it don't say that every critter must preach the 
Gospel." 



91 

I find that, as early as 1763, tho settlers of this town 
passed resolutions, showing a clear-sighted, resolute and 
unswerving devotion to the principles of that inspired and 
immortal declaration, which, in 177G, leaped from the brain 
of Jefferson, full-armed for the revolutionary conflict. 
Subsequently, they dismissed their minister, (Rev, Mr. 
Fuller,) for entertaining, as they erroneously supposed, 
Tory proclivities — then inaugurating the itinerant method, 
so popular here, for Princeton has always settled its min- 
isters on horseback. Thus early did our fathers evince a 
faith in principle, and a spirit of self-sacrifice of every 
worldly interest, in adherence to the cause of freedom. 
They saw that human rights are antecedent to all human 
governments, and hence above the reach or refusal of all 
human laws. They made institutions for man. The polit- 
ical and ecclesiastical policy of the present day, makes 
man for institutions. It circumscribes the boundaries of 
human rights ; spells negro with two gs ; preaches Jesus 
and practices Judas. Our ancestors overleaped the fences 
of custom and tradition — were the '' rebels," the " insur- 
rectionists," and " madmen " of their day. Hence, their 
lesson to us is : '' Break with the huckstering ' law and order' 
of your age ; project your thoughts from behind institu- 
tions ; build on ideas ; trample under foot all compromising 
organizations ; ' be governed by the laws of God, until 
you can make better.' " 

Some years later, Mr. Fuller returning — a prophet to 
be honored in his own country — showed, conclusively, that 
he was right on the question of freedom. In the State 
Convention, to ratif}'^ the Federal Constitution, he voted 
against that iniquitous instrument, on the ground of its 
pro-slavery clauses. I am proud that the representative of 
my native town took so noble a position in that crisis, so 
fatal to the black man, — proud that the first clergyman of 
this district, bore so high a moral testimony to the politi- 
cians of his age. The test of principle is to disagree with 
our immediate cotemporaries, when conscience bids. Mr. 



92 

Fuller, doing that, proved his superiority. He was 
taller than his peers — a moral Wachusett, crowned by the 
light of opposite centuries. Let us thank God that this 
heroic minister of Christ, had the moral courage to outface 
his compromising fellows and repudiate a constitution 
that consigned the black man to perpetual slavery. 

I do not wish to preach you an anti-slavery lecture, but 
I must say, I was saddened this morning, on looking 
around, to find not a single motto — significant of the 
fact, that four million slaves are crushed under the political 
and ecclesiastical institutions of this country — not one 
word to alleviate the inefiable woes that weigh upon their 
hearts. Are not the sainted insurrectionists of '76 still on 
the side of the oppressed? Do not they yearn to-day, 
from their higher seats, towards these millions of '' suffering 
and dumb " victims of a bondage, " one hour of which," 
Jefi'erson being the judge, "is fraught with more misery 
than whole ages of that which we rose in rebellion to 
oppose?" 

Pluck aside the centuries, and see how far we have 
strayed from that sublime ancestry, which " began with 
Puritanism and the wilderness ; " from that martyr faith, 
which, hurling British tyranny across the Atlantic, sounded 
boldly out into the great deep of equal rights, the 
Columbus of a true popular sovereignty. In 1641, Mass- 
achusetts, young, weak, destitute as an orphan girl, spread 
her arms ''to all who could fly to her from the tyranny and 
oppression of their persecutors," and pledged them pro- 
tection and maintenance at the public cost. In 1859, rich, 
luxurious, powerful, studded all over with churches, 
colleges, and temples of justice, the Legislature refusing 
to shelter the hounded fugitive from oppression, deliber- 
ately votes, (the representative of this town concurring,*) 
that our soil, hallowed with heroes' graves, shall continue 
open ground for the slave-hunter 1 Thank God for Massa- 
chutetts ! She was the first of civilized States in history, 

* See Note. 



93 

to abolish slavery by law. It was done in 1780, and the 
glorious event should be distinguished by a red letter day 
in our Calender. But in 1789, she went into partnership 
with slave dealers, and the firm is yet undissolved. When 
Webster was kicking in his cradle, Washington wrote to 
New Hampshire for the return of a fugitive woman. But, 
said he, if the moral sentiment of the people is against it, 
let her go. In 1859, Massachusetts erects a statue to the 
man, who. beyond all others, has insulted the moral senti- 
ment of New England, by commanding her to " conquer 
her prejudices " in favor of liberty, and return men to 
bondage, " with alacrity." But why travel so far from 
home ? I have told you how the early settlers of tliis 
town, rude, untaught, scarcely able to wring a subsistence 
from these unthankful hills, risked the ruin of their church, 
and the loss of educational advantages, by hurrying from 
their sacred desk, a minister, on mere suspicion of indiffer- 
ence to the interests of freedom, and of sympathizing with 
a comparatively respectable despotism beyond the Atlantic. 
I would gladly forget to say, did truth and the solemn 
monitions of this hour allow it, that lately there stood in 
this pulpit, with the consent of these pews, the great Ncav 
England apologist of the most cruel and remorseless 
system of bondage in modern history .'■- 

We meet to celebrate the deeds of revolutionists, of 
traitors, of insurrectionists. To-day, with a chastened, 
reverent enthusiasm, we take into our hands the consecrated 
sword, or musket, with which they slew oppressors. We 
wear next our very hearts, every brave word, whereby 
they pledged themselves to sink the government, the 
church, and the world, rather than relinquish justice or 
liberty. We glory in that Congregationalism which made 
every man a church ; in that democracy which made every 
man a monarchy. Those sainted farmers, play-fellows of 
these venerable hills, wherever they walked, society heaved 
with the volcanic throes of revolt. We are all the 

* See Note. 



94 

children, the heirs apparent, of treason and rebellion. 
Put your ear to the ground, and you will hear the echoing, 
earthquake tread of the impending second American Rev- 
olution. This very week, its Bunker's Hill was fought at 
Harper's Ferry. The timid, faithless toryism of to-day, 
pales and trembles at the crack of insurgent rifles, whose 
echoes still linger among the Alleghanies and Shenandoahs. 
John Brown, braver than Warren, more self-sacrificing than 
Lafayette, with his Spartan score of followers, throws 
himself against a gigantic despotism, in defence of the 
principles of the fathers. From these sacred graves, on 
which we stretch ourselves to-day, they speak : " " Go thou 
and do likewise ; be true to our memoiy ; execute justice 
for the oppressed ; launch upon equal inalienable rights, 
and let God take care of the consequences." 

As Luther said, '' God never can do without brave men." 
The age of brute force, the reign of bullets, is over. Ideas 
are gradually ascending to absolute power. It is our priv- 
ilege to rely upon moral force agitation — upon the omnipo- 
tence of abstract principles. The times " demand an arm 
of tougher sinew than the sword." It is for us to side 
Avith the oppressed and down-trodden in the great moral 
Bunker Hills and Solferinos of human conflict, to make 
ourselves of no reputation, and suffer the loss of all things, 
if need be, in defence of Jesus in the ''little ones." Every 
croAvn of glory must first be a crown of thorns. As for 
me, I believe in the inalienable and absolute right of every 
man to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." I am 
for the immediate and unconditional emancipation of every 
slave of every race, clime, or condition. In the great 
conflict for the rights of black men, now shaking this country 
to its foundations, " no union with slaveholders," is the 
highest moral ground, the only Christian position, the 
only Pisgah that overlooks the promised land of impartial 
liberty from this wilderness of compromise. Our fathers 
rest from their labors. The beloved sleep well. We, also, 
are before the world, who will judge us according to our 



95 

works. To equal our predecessors, vre must surpass them. 
To do as much, we must do more. 

" New occasions teach new duties ; Time makes ancient good uncouth ; 
Thcj' must upward still, and onward, who would keep abreast of Truth. 
Lo, before us gleam her campfires ! We ourselves must Pilgrims be ; 
Launch our Maj"flower, and steer boldly through the desperate winter sea, 
Nor attempt the Future's portal with the Past's blood-rusted key." 

*NOTE. — The undersigned, a majority of the Committee, having this report in charge, 
(the minority disclaiming it their province to judge, or express an opinion in the 
matter,) deem it but simple justice to state, that in their judgement, the remarks of 
Mr. Heywood, in the particulars indicated by reference to this note, were untrue in 
point of fact ; and, moreover, were an unwarranted, though we charitably believe, an 
unintentional trespass upon the proprieties of the occasion. 

CHARLES RUSSELL, 
WILLL\iI B. GOODNOW, 
EDWARD E. IL.VRTWELL. 

Rev. Dr. Allen was again invited to speak. He said : 

It has been mentioned to-day, and has been often men- 
tioned, as a thing very peculiar in the history of Princeton, 
that a people so intelligent, considerate and conservative 
as they have always been, should have such a history with 
regard to the ministry in the town. Since I came into the 
town, a man said to me, that the present minister of the 
Church here, is the twelfth or thirteenth, in succession, 
and that no man has ever died here, holding the pastoral 
office. He said, further, that the town did not contain the 
remains of a single minister of the Gospel, of any denom- 
ination, I, however, satisfied him of the fact, that the old 
burying ground, on the hill, does contain the remains of a 
native of this town, who was a minister of the Gospel. 

Why is it, that among people so considerate, and so con- 
servative, no minister has ever retained the pastoral office 
till called away by death ? I put this question to myself, 
and I answer it by saying, that it is because the people 
have been so religous, and had such exact and clear views 
of divine truth. I will mention, as an illustration, an anec- 
dote. A gentleman was invited to become a pastor of one 
of the Churches here. After considering the invitation for 



96 • 

sometime, he declined. He did not, then, give any reason ; 
but as the people expressed some disappointment at his 
not accepting their invitation, he told them that he did not 
decline the invitation for want of salary, for they had 
offered him as much as he expected. To some of my 
friends in another town, he gave the following reason : 
" When I learned how well informed the people were on 
all the doctrines of Christianity, and when 1 saw every 
eye fixed on me, and scanning me, I felt as if I was 
preaching to an assembly of Puritan divines, and that I 
was not competent to become the minister of such a 
peoi^le. I declined the invitation solely on that ground." 
That minister is still living. I think the strong religious 
character, the clear and exact views of divine truth, and 
the great importance which the people here attached to 
every j^^'*'^ o^ tbe system of religion which they had 
embraced, has had much to do with the changes in their 
ministry. 

I have heard people in the towns around say : " How 
the people in Princeton quarrel about religion." But it 
was no quarrelling, in their view. They were only '' con- 
tending earnestly for the faith once delivered to the 
Saints." They could not only tell what they believed, but 
give reason upon reason, from morning till night. It was 
no mere disputation, no quarrelling, no wrangling. No. 
They did it from the highest and holiest feelings. 

I will make a remark upon one thing, which I believe is 
not alluded to in the histories of this town. There are 
some things concerning individuals, and families, and com- 
munities, which can be learned only by observation. It 
was remarked that the people of this town were a noble 
people in their intellectual character, and in their political 
and religious principles and conduct. But they were a 
noble class of people in another respect — physically, 
bodily. I never saw such a generation of men. I have 
had much observation of mankind, and a large experience 
of the world, but I never saw such men as were here forty 



97 

and fifty years ago. I presume those who are old, and 
growing old, like myself, will be of the same opinion. A 
stranger in the town, once attended the old church on the 
hill, and he afterward remarked how he was struck with the 
appearance of the people. He never saw such people, 
men and women, sons and daughters. He said he was 
reminded of the story in the book of Joshua, where the 
spies reported that they saw the Anakims — giants — in the 
land, and " we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and 
so were we in their sight." I remembered, said he, that 
the Bible says the Anakims lived '' in the hill country," and 
I supposed, they were extinct, till I came here ; but I find 
they are still living " in the hill country," around about 
Wachusett, and among the other hills of Princeton. 

The next sentiment was : 

No. 18. Old Princeton — The good old days of Princeton, made gloriouB 
by the solid worth, true valor, and wise patriotism of our fathers. May 
her sons perpetuate her virtues. 

Mr. Everett — The next sentiment has reference to the 
old men and women who still linger with us, but who will 
soon pass away to the spirit land. 

No. 19. The Old Men and Women of Princeton — May their last days 
be their best, and their last pleasures the sweetest. May their declining 
sun shed mellow beams of light on their i^osterity, and set in glory. 

The President — If there is no one prepared to respond 
to this sentiment, we will proceed to the next. 

Mr. Everett — I wish we might have some volunteer 
sentiments, with such remarks as gentlemen may please to 
offer. We have shaken the hearts of many friends through 
their hands, to-day, and I would like to hear from some of 
them this evening. 

The President — I am happy to know that Capt. Amos 
13 



98 

Merriam, from the city of spindles, (Lowell,) is here. We 
shall be pleased to hear a word from him. 

Capt. Merriam being thus called out, said : 

I am not a literary man, and you must not expect a long 
speech from me. I have come up here to-day, to see and 
hear, and I have been extremely gratified with what I have 
seen and heard. I have not been in this town for many 
years — nearly or quite a quarter of a century — and most 
of the old inhabitants I recognize to-day. At the time I 
left the place, there was not a family here that I did not 
know very well, having occupied a position that led me to 
a general acquaintance with the people of the town. I 
was, for many years, a Selectman, and an Overseer of the 
Poor, and was, also, a Surveyor, so that I was led to know 
the people in all parts of the town. 

I rejoice that I have been permitted to meet so many of 
you whom I once knew, and to listen to the speeches and 
sentiments that have been uttered. They have brought 
back to my mind the sterling virtues of this people. 
The glory and happiness of the people here, does not 
consist in their numbers, but in their character, and I think I 
can bear my testimony fully, that the true character of the 
people has been expressed in the addresses to which I have 
had the pleasure of listening to-day. 

I will not occupy your time any further, but will offer, as 
a sentiment, a few words : 

This Centeiniial Day to celebrate we meet, 
Our friends to see, and them to greet. 
Before returns another Anniversary day, 
Three generations will have passed away. 
Then to all that's good and great aspire. 
Like yonder mountain, beckoning higher. 
That Princeton's sons and daughters, yet unborn. 
May bless the world that they adorn. 

The President — We have with us an adopted son, who 
is somewhat advanced in years, as many of the rest of us 



99 

are, who lias spent many years in Princeton. Let me 
introduce to you Thomas Wilder, Esq., of Boston. 

Mr. President^ Ladies and Gentlemen: — I am happy to 
embrace this opportunity, to speak of one, whose name 
lias not been much mentioned on this occasion. One, who, 
half a century ago, was known as Master "Woods. In 1802, 
he conveyed me here from Ashburnham, on the seventh of 
June. We rode on horseback, and he gave me a very 
interesting account of every family between these places, 
pointing out the building where Sam Frost killed his 
father; the place where the girl was lost ; the eastern part 
of Wachusett, where Frost killed Captain Allen, and the 
tree on which he climbed to watch the funeral obsequies 
of his victim. 

Master Woods was greeted by his appropriate appella- 
tion, by old and young, where he was known. This led 
the boy who had taken passage upon the same animal with 
him, without a pillion, to inquire into his antecedents. I 
soon learned one important fact, that he was the first 
school-master of the town, and being self-taught, under- 
stood how to teach others. Being a man of thought, he 
strove to promote it by questions suited to elicit thought, 
and propounding problems to be solved by induction, thus 
giving to minds a stimulus to develop itself, without 
depending much upon artificial helps ; consequentl}^, a 
goodly number of intellectual inhabitants, of both sexes, 
came forward, honorable to the town and country. We 
need look no further than his own family for illustrations. 
I might speak of numbers, but will particularize but one, 
his oldest son by his last wife, Leonard, whose germ, 
under paternal culture, gave hopeful promise, and 
who, encouraged by the means of education, which at 
that time the public schools afforded, graduated at Harvard 
with the highest honors of the College, and whose writings 
are said to be the most lucid in the English language, 
and are read in all the enlightened parts of the world from 



100 

his works, while he filled the chair of Theology, at Andover 
Seminary. As like causes produce like eflects, it may be 
seen that the inductive principle which wrought so ellect- 
ually in Dr. Woods the senior, has been not less so in Dr. 
Woods junior, now President of Bowdoin College, and 
who ranks among the first literary men of our country. 

Master Woods did a great deal of public business, and 
my youthful mind was led to inquire, why he had not an 
Esquire commission. Well, Hon. Moses Gill, being a mag- 
istrate sufiicient for the business of the town, at that early 
period, the office, if conferred, would have been rather 
sinecure. Yet, it was prior to the Gerrymander, synony- 
mous with districting the State for political effect, under 
the administration of Governor Gerry, which all Federal- 
ists thought almost unpardonable. And Rev. Mr. Holcom, 
of Sterling, at a supper, where poetic freedom was 
lawful, remarked it was the greatest piece of wickedness 
over committed since the rebellion of the fallen angels. 
How much political hire was used to eff"ect the object, I 
am unable to say, but Esq.'s came forth like locusts for 
multitude. Rev. Thomas Mason, of Northfield, Represen- 
tative of the town for many years, was a son of Princeton, 
brother of the venerable Joseph Mason, now living on 
the old farm, between eighty and ninety years old, pos- 
sessed of mental vigor competent to grapple with almost 
any subject, and who, by industry, economy and prudence, 
has furnished a rich legacy for the town. The above rev- 
erend gentleman, while sitting upon a splendid horse, was 
asked why he did not ride an humble ass, as did the great 
preacher when he entered Jerusalem, replied, he was 
unwilling to ride a jackass, for Gerry had made them all 
Esq.'s. 

But Esq. Gill, afterwards Lieutenant Governor, conferred 
upon Master Woods, a more honorable than civil title, even 
the well-earned appellation of Philosopher, and when he 
had visitors of philosophic minds, he would send for his 
Philosopher, and thus introduce him. As he was wont to 



101 

wear a leather apron at home, he was not careful to put it 
off on those occasions. It served the double purpose of 
preserving some portions of his dress, and also, as parch- 
ment for data, and a substitute for sand, on which John 
Newton studied Euclid upon the shores of Africa. "When 
his cogitations were interrupted, he would make a mark to 
indicate his soundings. His apron was covered with 
figures, signs, or hieroglj^phics. 

Mr. President, I am aware by what title I have been 
introduced to this platform ; but, sir, the paper emanating 
from the Council chamber, came to me most unexpectedly, 
and knowing there were more magistrates in Ware village, 
in which place I then resided, than the business of the place 
demanded, I thought the best use I could make of it Avould 
be to lock it up for safe keeping, unaccompanied by any 
law, hoping it might tend to check the exuberance of 
Esq.'s. 

No. 20. The memory of our Fathers^-Hy all their deeds of noble 
daring, by all their toils and sacrifices in planting institutions for our 
enjoyment, by their manly virtue and holy example, we will cherish their 
memories forever. 

To this sentiment, the Rev. Arthur B. Fuller, of 
"Watertown, responded as follows : 

Mr. President, and Ladies and Gentlemen : — I should 
feel some doubt about trespassing again on your attention 
and time, were it not that the strain of remark which I 
felt obliged to offer this afternoon, did not embrace one or 
two thoughts of that more serious and solemn character, 
which seem to be becoming to this place and this hour ; 
and as a minister of the gospel of Jesus Clirist, standing 
in the town where an ancestor of mine preached the 
gospel as he believed it, I feel that there are one or two 
topics upon which I would speak here and now. 

My remarks this afternoon, were for the purpose of 
removing any undeserved imputation which rested on the 
patriotism of an ancestor of mine. I propose now to 



102 

respond to the sentiment just ofTered, and which seems to me 
be full of nobleness. I recall much that I have learned 
from a father and uncles of those who early lived here, for 
my family have ever treasured each leaf on which the dear 
name of Princeton was written ; and from those records, I 
gather some knowledge of their fathers and yours. 1 
gather the impressions which were indelibly written on 
their minds. I recall some of the accounts which they 
gave when they came here everj' year to sing again Zion's 
songs, and I feel that your ancestors and mine were 
generally pious, noble men, and that their memory deserves 
to be cherished. I rejoice in this Centennial Celebration, 
tliat it was put into the hearts of this people to come up 
here and keep this joyous day ; and it seems to me we 
ought to have something more of the serious and devout 
cast given to our thoughts, which the occasion is so well 
calculated to suggest, 

I remember hearing my grandfather spoken of as one 
Avho was instant in season and out of season in his visits 
to the chambers of the sick and dying; I have a record, 
kept by him, of the bereavements of the families here.* 
I find a record of children, breathing out their last sigh ; 
of old men, by whom he offered the prayer which wafted 
on the wings of faith the spirit upward ; of mothers in 
Israel giving their last counsel to childhood, as they had 
given the first smile that was the earliest sunlight that fell 
on the infant heart. I know, then, something of the fathers 
of those who dwell here to-day. That grandfather of 
mine was never accused of any dereliction of duty — his 
moral integrity was as unmovable as yonder mountain, 
(Wachusett,) and pointed upward directly as does that 
hill. And even as to the charge that '' he did not catechise 
the children " — I presume the children were willing to 
excuse him, if it were so — it was said that they had not 



* Subsequently presented, with the first covenant, to the Church in PrinBeton,njy the 
speaker. 



103 

the shadow of a reason for the charge that was made 
against him. 

As I came here to-day, and saw your decorations, it 
seemed to me you scarcely needed to " hang your banner 
on the outer wall," as I saw the whole landscape decked 
with beauty, as though decorated to honor the God who 
had created and fashioned these everlasting hills ; when I 
saw these rich hues of Autumn so gorgeously displayed, I 
felt there was a banner floating in every breeze, even as 
though God had garnished the scene for such an occasion 
as this. 

But, Mr. President, I want to enlarge the sentiment ; I 
believe in a religion that holds in honor every man and 
woman who loves God, and Jesus his Son, and humanity, 
for which that Son died. Love to God, to Christ, to man 
— that is my Christianity. My creed is, that every human 
being who endeavors to elevate mankind, deserves to be 
regarded as a brother, or sister, or mother of every true 
man. (Applause.) And to all such, of every race of every 
period, and of each sex, I Avould fain do impartial justice. 
I wish now to include the mothers of this town in your 
sentiment of commendation. Too often, in doing justice 
to man, we forget our sister woman ; too often the memory 
of the fathers is permitted to overshadow that of noble 
mothers. I wish to speak of one of those mothers in 
Israel — my noble and sainted grandmother, once an honored 
resident of this town. Rev. Timothy Fuller, in going to 
Sandwich, met a young lady who had charms not only of 
person, but of mind and spirit, a daughter of the patriotic 
Rev. Abraham Williams, who sent three sons into the 
revolutionary fight. That mother said, " Go ; serve your 
country well ; we will take care of ourselves." One of 
those sons died in a prison ship of Great Britain. Rev. 
Timothy Fuller married a sister of those brave young men, 
Miss Sarah Williams, of Sandwich. During that revolu- 
tionary struggle, her father resigned his salary, so that his 
people might not be impoverished. That woman was 



104 

■worthy of such a sire, and of the mother who bore her ; 
she instilled heroic and honorable principles in her chil- 
dren, who, if they did not include my father and uncles, I 
should say were an honor to this place. One, my venera- 
ble father, became a member of Congress, a Speaker of the 
House of Representatives of Massachusetts, a man, of 
whom I may, without impropriety, say, that he honored 
the place from which he came. (Applause.) 

Ah, sir, we are not to forget such mothers, who, in the 
quietude of their homes, by the simplicity and beauty of 
their daily lives, by their unwearied and unceasing care, 
and in answer to their saintly prayers, shape and mould 
the hearts and minds of the men of this and all other lands, 
and impart to them the larger portion of what in them is 
great and noble. 

"The mothers of our forest-land — 

Their bosoms pillow 'd men, 
And proud were they by such to stand, 

In hammock, fort or glen ; 
To load the sure old rifle, 

To run the leaden ball, 
To watch a battling husband's place, 

And fill it should he fall ; 
No braver dames had Sparta, 

No nobler matrons Rome, 
Yet who or lauds or honors them. 

E'en in their mountain home." 

One, at least, Mr. President, shall stand here to-day, and 
do them honor, and I know that my word on this topic 
will awaken a response in all your hearts. 

That '' honorable woman " of whom I have spoken, and 
who once dwelt amid these beautiful scenes, and loved and 
cherished her country's cause, and was willing, as was 
her mother, to sacrifice for it, and even consented that 
her worthy husband, your minister, should fight in its 
behalf, if need be, (as he bravely proffered this town to 
do,) shoulder to shoulder with its patriotic " minute men" — 
that woman, I say, was fit to be commemorated to-day as 



105 

the ancestor of another woman no less noble, and of whom 
America is justly proud, — Margaret Fuller, — who was her 
descendant, who sacrificed so much for liberty in fair 
Italy, who suffered privation in Rome during its besiege- 
ment, and soothed and comforted the wounded Romans, 
bleeding for their country's cause, and fighting against 
spiritual, intellectual and physical bondage. 

But, sir, there is yet another thought that I wish to 
suggest now. We have had many sons and daughters who 
have come back here to-day, some who were never here 
before ; but there has been some one here, too, who was 
also here a few years after the settlement of this place, 
and that is, the '' Angel of Death." I could not go away, 
and do justice to my own feelings, if I did not call your 
attention to the fact that we have had a discourse — a 
sermon preached to us in the midst of our festivities. We 
have gathered here, this Autumnal day, and, in our joyous- 
ness, who thought the '' angel reaper " so near, and ready 
to bear away another sheaf of his endless harvest? The 
falling leaf spoke to us of mortality, yet, perchance, we 
heeded not. We plaintively asked, in reference to your 
ancestors and the ministers who here once " dispensed the 
word " in this place — ^' Our fathers, where are they ? and the 
prophets — do they live forever.?" But, did our own mor- 
tality come here to us ? Did we think death might be 
knocking at the very door of some of our tabernacles 
of clay, even when we were celebrating the memory of 
those who are gone ? 0, it could not be, that to-day we 
were to be greeted with that awful word of warning — 
to-day, in our joyousness, hear the solemn voice, saying : 
" Ye, too, must die ! " And yet, so it is, — never are we 
exempt from the Destroyer's presence. 

" Leaves have their time to fall, 

And flowers to wither at the north wind'B breath, 
And stars to set — but all, 

Thou hast all seasons for thine own, Death ! " 

One who bore the name of one of the old settlers — the 
14 



106 

name of Mirick — dropped dead to-day, and it seems as 
though God had preached a lesson to us, and given to the 
minister of this pulpit something to say next Sabbath — 
something for me to say, and that I should be false to my 
duty, if I did not say, that we are not only to remember 
the fathers, but we are to remember that we are to meet 
them soon. I have sought to do justice to the memory of 
one, who, for a time, was falsely accused ; see that you do 
him justice, also. When I go up to the banks of the 
Merrimac, in New Hampshire, and see the stone erected 
there to the memory of the first minister of this place — a 
man who deserves to be perpetually honored here, where 
he so faithfully labored ; who was not alone your minister, 
but afterwards your representative in the Convention 
which ratified our Federal Constitution, whose pro-slavery 
clauses received his emphatic protest, and required his 
reluctant vote against that instrument — I think the citizens 
should remove that honored dust here, so that there may 
be, not only the dust of one who had ministered here, but 
especially of the one who first preached the Gospel in this 
place ; or, if it be too late for that, at least erect a fitting 
memorial to him, in your church-yard, where the silent 
dust of one of his children reposes. Were it needful, you 
might call on me for my full proportion of pecuniary aid 
in such a work as that. (Applause.) 

My friends, you do indeed v\'ell to cherish the memory 
of such fathers and mothers as I have sought to commem- 
orate. For, changing the phraseology, if it could be done 
so as to include heroic and holy women, as well as men, 
what heart does not echo those familiar words : 

" Lives of gi-eat men all remind us 

We can make oui- lives sublime, 
And, departing, leave behind us 

Footprints on the sands of time ; 

Footprints, that perhaps another 

Sailing o'er life's solemn main. 
Some forlorn and shipwrecked brother, 

Seeing, shall take heart again. '^ 



107 

The Hon. Charles T. Russell, of Boston, the Orator of 
the day, being called out, spoke as follows : 

Mr. President : — I certainly concur most heartily in all 
that has been said — so well, so beautifully said — by my 
friend Fuller, who has just taken his seat, of the love for 
those who are gone, and, I may add, the love for those who 
are living. There is no place beyond my own fireside and 
home, that I visit with so much interest as this spot, where 
I received my birth, and where I received my early educa- 
tion ; where I have always found sympathy and love, and 
honor, far beyond, I am afraid, what I deserve. And I 
desire here and now, and always, to thank the people of 
Princeton for the good the}' have done me by their insti- 
tutions, and more than all, by their good and holy example. 
I had well hoped that, after my long, and, I fear, wearisome 
address this morning, I should not be called upon to speak 
to you again, at least to-day. When I was coming up here, 
a Princeton man told roe a little anecdote, that may illus- 
trate my position. He said, that some few years ago, 
he was called upon by a man to butcher a couple of hogs 
for him. They were enormous, raw-boned creatures, big 
enough to weigh five hundred pounds apiece, exactly what 
our old friend, now dead and gone, Mr. Zeke Davis, would 
call " working hogs." When he came to cut them, however, 
there was no pork thicker than that, (indicating by a 
measure of the finger,) in them. The butcher sent them 
home by a waggish boy of his, who, as he took them out 

of the wagon, said to the owner : " Mr. , don't you 

want to buy some good salt pork?" "No sir," said he, 
" what should I want to buy salt pork for ; have I not got 
these two hogs ? " " Well," said the boy, *' I did not know 
but you luould like to get a little to fry yourn in.'' (Laughter.) 
I thought that by the time I got through that long 
address, with its propositions, like the dry bones in Ezekiel's 
vision, very many and very dry, you would want a little 
good pork to fry mine in, and would not call on me again. 
And I am happy to say, you have been eminently success- 



108 

ful, and that even the leanness and meagreness of my part 
of the forenoon service, has been made very palatable, by 
the rich and superb material in which you have this after- 
noon " fried it." 

As I came up here, with an address prepared under the 
pressure of so recent an invitation, I relied upon the same 
security as that Princeton boy, who consoled his companion, 
who, with torn pantaloons, was snivelling along home from 
school. Said his sympathizing mate : '* Have not you got 
any good old grandmother at home, who will make all 
straight there ?" So I knew, from long experience, I had 
a most excellent and indulgent grandmother here, in my 
native town, who would forgive anything herself, and 
make anybody else forgive it, too. 

I have, to-day, aimed only to tell you a plain and simple 
story — homely, but not wholly useless and uninteresting to 
us, I hope. I have felt, all day, much like apologizing to you 
in the language of an old friend we all knew, now long dead 
and gone, but whom you will recognize at once. He went 
to one of the militia reviews, and when the inspector (I 
believe I get the right officer — Major Cobb ?) came along, 
presented his gun and accoutrements for examination. 
Everything required by law and custom was there. There 
was the priming-wire and brush, flint, box, and everything 
to complete the equipment. " But," said the inspector, 
" your gun looks rather rusty and black." " Yes," said he, 
" I know it ; but I use it for hunting sometimes, and thought 
it wa'nt best to scow it — make it glammer so it wouldn't kill 
no squirrels." For the same reason, I came bringing the old 
gun just as it was. I thought I wouldn't scour it, lest it 
should " glammer so," I shouldn't even hit a squirrel with it. 

Indeed, so rusty and old-fashioned am I, that I cannot 
quite catch the step with all my young friends, who have 
preceded me this evening, and who have spoken so 
eloquently on their favorite topics. Much as I dislike the 
evils of which some have spoken, — and I do, most exceed- 
ingly, — I cannot quite agree with everything that has been 



109 

said upon men and measures. So you will allow me to 
dissent wherever I like, our's being a free atmosphere, and 
free highways, Avhere every man is permitted to ride his 
own hobbyhorse, provided no one is asked to get up 
behind him. Perhaps I am like an old friend and towns- 
man, in the memory of many younger than I am. For 
years he beat the martial drum here for the militia, so 
pleasantly alluded to by my friend, the poet, to-day. I 
I believe he did so, back, even, almost to Revolutionary 
days. All Avent well, till, in turn, the more enterprising- 
youngsters got up the Light Infantry, in blue trousers and 
shiny buttons. They must needs have drumming of a 
more stirring, exciting, fashionable, quickstep style. So 
they got a modern drummer of skill, to their liking, who 
put in every modern beat, with all its fantastic elegance. 
You remember, Mr. President, how, one day, the old 
drummer stood in your store door, when the company 
went by, in all the gay movement of a recent march. 
" Ah ! " said he, " Squire Russell, I like the good old common 
time ruh-a-dub-dub ; but Cobb puts in the flourishes — the 
Old Harry couldn't march after him." I cannot say how it 
may be with that distinguished personage. He is quite 
apt to get the lock step even with us, if we are not pretty 
careful when we put in our extra flourishes. Now, some 
of our young friends " put in the flourishes," of most 
modern style, and if I can't march after them, I hope it is 
not because I resemble the " Old Harry," but because old- 
fashioned and conservative, I prefer " the good old common 
Bevolutionary time rub-a-dub-dub J ^ 

Mr. President, some who have preceded me, have dwelt 
upon the ancient institutions of the town. Allow me a 
word, for what I may call some of the mediiBval ones. 
My friend Wilder has spoken of his old school-master, 
Woods. I remember an old school-master here, too ; and 
when I saw that same master, my friend Wilder himself, I 
seemed to sink right down into the little green petticoat I 
used to wear, and my perpendicular master stood right 



110 

before me, teaching me my ABC. There was the very 
book, with all the pictures : 

" A, was an archer, and shot at a frog ; 
B, was a butcher, and kept a great dog." 

Why, upon earth, the archer shot at such game, I could 
never understand ; it seemed to me poor business. If it 
would not have been a couplet that nobody would have 
believed, I always fancied it would have been : 

" A, was an archer, and shot at a peep, 

And B, was a butcher, and sold his meat cheap." 

(Laughter.) Then came C ; and he was 

" A captain all covered with lace." 

That was our Captain Merriam. 

" D, was a drunkard, and had a red face." 

That fellow w^as a stranger, and lived out of town, and 
only came up here " 'Lection days ;" (laughter) and so on, 
to the end. 

Then there Avas the now defunct Light Infantry. I 
remember the first time they came out. 0, how my mili- 
tary admiration burst out at May training, and culminated 
in the sham fight, at Lancaster muster, when the Princeton 
boys put it to the Sterhng fellows, to the last cartridge, 
and till they were all as dry of ammunition as the old con- 
tinentals of Bunker Hill. We put it to them just as we have 
to the men of old Sutton, and Barre, and Marlboro', every 
Cattle-show day, for twenty-five years back, and just as we 
mean to for a hundred to come — only more. (Laughter 
and applause.) 

Then there was the Engine Company. We had an 
engine once, — a distinguished citizen gave it to the town. 
I remember when it was brought out, and you, Mr. Presi- 
dent, and Colonel Whitney, and Captain Dana and 
Merriam, and divers of those patriotic citizens around me. 



Ill 

were at the brakes, and, I think, the late Mr. Boylston held 
the " nozzle." (Laughter.) So they worked at it, steady up 
and down, and it dreadfully screeched, and screamed, and 
squeaked, but not the drop ot water would the ungrateful 
machine squirt. And so it went on, till a facetious towns- 
• man came along, and inquired whether that was " really an 
Ingun or only a Mulatto." (Laughter.) 

Then there was the Singing School, kept by the father 
of our friend Howe, where I spent three days, trying to 
bring the singing of that excellent singer into harmony 
with mine. But I could never get, for one moment, his 
" fa, sol, la," to agree with my " fa, sol, la," howsoever I 
tried, so I gave it up ; but not the Singing School. Ah. 
no ! I could not forego that for mere musical disagree- 
ments. I went on to the end ; and at the close of many a 
"Winter evening, while they were pouring forth Coronation, 
Old Hundred, Dundee, or Plaintive Martyrs, (I couldn't 
exactly tell which,) in a harmony, compared with which, 
" Italian trills were tame," I was distressing myself with 
the embarrassing question, which young lady I should 
offer to go home with, — a question, sir, neither then nor now, 
among the rosy cheeks of these hills, so mighty easy of 
settlement, for a sensitive heart, just emerging from its 
teens. (Applause.) There was music here I could under- 
stand, — time, tune, scale and expression — " piano, dolce, 
affettuoso, lentando, pianissimo," from soft and plaintive, 
to the very softest. 

Then, of an October evening, came the glorious huskings. 
That needs no description. What quantities of Indian 
pudding here, I stowed under my jacket, on some of these 
memorable occasions, at my good old grandfather's. In 
the remembrance of those boyish achievements, how 
annoyed I have sometimes been, at the capacity of the 
human organs, on extraordinary occasions. 

Again, I have almost listened, since I came here, to hear 
the familiar old rattle of the six-horse Albany stage, 
going like lightning down yonder hill, with Joe Maynard 



112 

on the box, cracking his whip over the lenders. And it 
was not till I recollected that it was Thursday, and not 
"Wednesday, that I ceased to look about for old Basset's 
post, peddling some ten score of the '' Massachusetts Spy," 
from West Boylston line to the boundaries of Westminster. 
If I were to give you a sentiment, I would say : 

Tlie Institutions of Princeton — Not the ancient, nor the modern, but 
the mediceval, — the District School, the Light Infantry, the Engine Com- 
pany, the Singing School, the Husking, and Joe Maynard and old 
Bassctt's Stage. 

And I think they were of a pretty good kind of institu- 
tions too. In the lighter frolics and humors of their day, 
our grandfathers and all about us participated. But they 
engaged in all these sports and amusements in a way 
consistent with a deep and fervent piety. They did not 
suppose that religion made men morose and unhappy, but 
induced a reverence for God and a respect for man. And 
thus, while we have ever had a moral and religious 
community, as such communities always are, I will venture 
to say there was not a happier, perhaps, I might say, 
merrier, community on the face of the earth. Certainly 
we boys can say that we did not suffer in that respect. 
But my time is quite gone, and I ought not to trespass 
another moment on your patience. I only add : Princeton 
— How I love her; God bless her forever. (Applause.) 

Prof. Everett, the Poet of the day, was the next 
speaker. He said : 

*' I am no orator, as Brutus is ;" but if ever I wished I 
were, it is at this moment. I have always been proud of 
being a son of Princeton, and to-day I have felt more 
proud than ever. When, three weeks ago, I received a 
request to prepare a poem for this occasion, I told my 
friends that, as Princeton had produced so many distin- 
guished men, I felt greatly flattered b}^ the compliment, 
and I felt the responsibility of a hundred years resting 
upon me. 



113 

Our venerable friend from Boston, (Mr. Wilder,) haa 
referred to Master Wood?, as an excellent teacher. I thank 
the gentleman, in behalf of the profession to which I have 
the honor to belong, for the merited comphments which 
he has paid to that profession. I left this town long since, 
and have been engaged in teaching, constantly providing 
laurels for the brows of others, though I have provided 
none for my own. 

Last week I wrote to my brother, asking him to give me 
the names of all the ministers of the Gospel who have been 
born in this town. He gave me the names of nineteen. 
Last Saturday night, as I went to the Church Library, of 
which I happen to be the Librarian, a book was handed to 
me, called '' The Ba^jtist Pulpit,^^ by Dr. Sprague. In this 
work, he has given the names of the most distinguished 
ministers of that denomination who have lived in America. 
Among them I found the name of Rev. Dr. Abel Woods, 
the oldest son of Master Woods. Master Woods had two 
sons who were Doctors of Divinity. Rev. Abel Woods, 
who began his ministry in 1790, and completed it in 1850, 
making a term of sixty years that he was in the Gospel 
ministry. His oldest son was President of a College, in 
Alabama, and now resides in Providence, Rhode Island. . 
Dr. Leonard Woods was, for a long period, a Professor of 
Divinity, at Andover, and his son is a Doctor of Divinity, 
and President of a College. Then Master Woods had two 
sons who were Doctors of Divinity, and two grandsons 
who were also Doctors of Divinity. This is honor enough 
for one school-master. 

I have one word to say about the mediaeval institutions, to 
which reference has been made. We are here acting the part 
of Old Mortality. Those of you who are familiar with the 
writings of Walter Scott, will recollect how he represents 
Old Mortality, as going about in the grave-yards, raising up 
the fallen monuments, and etching out again the characters 
that had become indistinct, so that they might be easily 
read by the next generation. We, to-day, are going among- 
15 



lU 

the graves of our fathers, etchiDg out the letters, so that 
the next generation may read them, and hand them down 
for a hundred years more. God grant that their suc- 
cessors may do the same, and so on, till the last syllable of 
recorded time. 

Let me refer to one institution, which has passed away, 
and which we would not revive. It was not peculiar to 
our fathers, but to the age. It was the institution of the 
Wine Cup. I recollect one personification of that institu- 
tion, in old Mr. Elijah Rice. We all recollect him — the 
dear old man. Under that frock which he Avore, although 
he sometimes carried a jug, he concealed as warm a heart 
as ever throbbed in a human bosom. Many a time have I 
sat in my father's barn, and heard him tell tales of the 
Revolution. The most noble ideas I have of Washington, 
were kindled at those huskings from the stories of old 
Elijah Rice. Had I half the powers of description which 
he possessed, I would relate one of them. Everybody, 
almost, used rum in those days ; and one day when Mr. 
Rice was going home with his jug, he was met by Ephraim 
Beaman, Esq. He was always willing to be met anywhere. 
Mr. Beaman said, in a very hortatory manner, suitable to 
the occasion, " You love your worst enemy, Mr. Rice." 
" We are commanded to," was his quick response. 

As I am the poet of the next hundred years, I will 
venture to read two brief odes, one of which, may repre- 
sent the emotions with which our fathers regarded the 
wine cup, and the other, may represent our own feelings 
in regard to it. 

THE BACCHANAL'S ODE. 

Sweet soother of luy cares and cure for all my pains, 

Whether thou mantlest with Hispania's treasure 
Or juice from Rhine or brown Italian plains, 
Thou art a source of purest pleasure. 

When blithe Burns sang his Jeanie's praise 
And brightened every feature, 
'Twas wine inspired his lays 
And aided nature. 



115 

Hail sparkling Wine ! 
Far dearer than the Vine. 
I'll drink again 
My bright Champagne 
Yet again ! 
Yet again ! 
It inspires my song, 
Makes a short life long 
And a blessing, 
A blessing, 
A blessing. 
Still again 
I'll quafl' amain 
With Bacchus' jolly train. 
Till giddy, giddy, giddy, 
And quite unable 
To hold my cup 
Or e'en sit up, 
The lamps all whirl round 
And sleepy, sleepy, sleepy, 

I fall beneath the table 
Or on the ■welcome ground 
And sunk in soft repose, I sleep in peace profound. 



THE BACCHANAL'S PALINODE. 

iFell author of my cares and cause of all my pains, 
Whether thou temptest with Hispania's treasure 
Or juice from Rhine or brown Italian plains. 
Thou poisonest every source of pleasure. 

Where Burns sung Highland Mary's praise. 
And colored everj^ feature, 

Wine ne'er inspired his lays 
Or aided Nature. 

No : dearer are the Nine 
Than the most sparkling Wine. 
I'll ne'er drink again 
That cursed Champagne ! 
Ne'er again. 
Ne'er again, 
It hampers my verse, 
It makes life a curse 
And a burden, 
A burden, 
A burden. 



110 

I never again 
Will fever my brain, 
With Bacchus' swinish train, 
Till giddy, giddy, giddy, 
And quite unable 
To hold my cup 
Or e'en sit up 
The lamps all whirl round. 
And sleepy, sleepy, sleepy, 

I fell beneath the table 
Or on the cold hard ground, 
And lie in dead oblivion lost and sleep profound. 



Mr. EvEKETT, (Toast-Master) : — With your permission, I 
will now make a motion, full of solemn interest to all. We 
have reviewed to-day, the century that has just passed, and 
have looked into the graves of our fathers and mothers, 
and our grandfathers and grandmothers. I move that, 
after we have listened to the closing hymn, we adjourn to 
the call of posterity, one hundred years hence. 

The motion was unanimously carried, and the following 
hymn, composed by William E, Richardson, of Boston, a 
native of Princeton, was sung, as the closing exercise. 
Tune — " Auld Lang Syne." 

HYMN. 

BY WILLIAM E. RICHARDSOX. 

Here gathered round this festive scene, 
Have met the friends of youth , 
To pledge once more affection's gift 
Of Friendship, Love and Truth ; 

Then ere our festive scenes are o'er, 

Ere we our joys resign. 

With hand in hand, each trusty friend 

Shall pledge to " auld lang syne." 

We'll pledge their memories, who of old, 
Could home and joys forego, 
Who dared to found for us a home, 
One hundred years ago ; 



117 

Here on this spot their children met, 
To join with loud acclaim, 
With grateful hearts to twine a wreath 
Around their honored name. 

Old age here blends its trembling tongue, 
With childhood's lisping vow, 
To join the song whose echoes ring, 
Round old Wachusett's brow ; 

Then swell the chorus to their praise, 

Join every one below. 

In memory of our pai-ents dead, 

One hundred years ago. 

Time will not grant a scene like this, 
To us on earth again, 
Then while we pledge the parting tear. 
We'll trust in " auld lang syne ; " 

Then may our record brightly shine, 

Prove earthly duties done, 

'Twill gild the page of past " lang syne," 

And gem the one to come. 



LETT E R S 



The following letters Avere received by the Committee 
of Arrangements, from individuals invited, but unable to 
be present on the occasion of the Anniversary. 



Westborough, Oct. 15th, 1859. 
W. B. GooDNOw : 

Dear Sir: — It would afford me great pleasure to be 
present at the commemorative Centennial Anniversary of Princeton, Did 
not indispensable engagements prevent my attendance, I would most cor- 
dially accept your invitation. In token of the deep interest I still cherish 
for the people of your town, I offer the following sentiment : 

Princeton — Elevated and commanding in its natural position. May its 
inhabitants, in time to come, as in time past, be distinguished for their 
physical and intellectual vigor; for firmness of purpose, and for the 
industrious cultivation of its mountain soil . 



Yours, truly. 



E. DEMOND. 



UxBRiDGE, Oct. 15th, 1859. 
William B. Goodnow, Esq. : 

My Dear Sir: — Your circular, inviting me 
to attend the Centennial Celebration in Princeton, on the 20th inst., was 
duly received. I am very grateful for this kind remembrance of the Com- 
mittee of Arrangements, signified by yourself. It would give me great 
pleasure to be present on an occasion of so much interest to the citizens of 
Princeton. I was longer in the ministry there than were any of my pre- 
decessors, or than have been any of my successors. It was the birth-place 
of my children. Though I have been away many years, my interest in, 



119 

and attachment to the place and inhabitants, have not ceased. But I am 
now very much of an invalid. I have not strength to enable me to endure 
the excitement and fatigue of the occasion, which I very much regret. 1 
shall alwiij-8 rejoice in the temporal and spiritual prosperity of the inhab- 
itants of Princeton, where I spent so many years, and had so many firm 
friends, — friends, many of whom have passed tO' the better land. 

With kind regards to your associates on the Committee, and hoping the 
occasion will pass pleasantly and profitabl}^ I remain, dear sir. 
Respectfully, yours, 

SAMUEL CLARKE. 



Ellington, Oct. 18th, 1859. 
To Messrs. Edward E. Hartwell, John Brooks, Jr., George E. Pratt, 
and others. Committee of Princeton, Mass., appointed to direct and 
superintend the public proceedings in that town, on the 20th inst., in 
commemoration of the completion of one hundred years since the incor- 
poration of the town. 

Gentlejien : 

Yours of the 15th inst., through the agency of Caleb Dana, 
Esq., of Worcester, came to hand last eve, (the one directed to me in Troy, 
I never heard from,) is a call upon me for my thanks for your kind and 
polite attention to me, in desiring my attendance on the interesting occa- 
sion, — an invitation I should most readily accept, if I had strength and 
health equal to the journey and the fatigues which must attend it. But, as 
my health is, I cannot think of it. On the first of May, 1859, I entered 
on my eighty-fifth year, and all will say, as relates to a man thus advanced, 
that home is the proper place for him. 

With my best respects for you, gentlemen, personally, and my cordial 
desire that the occasion may bring together many circles of relatives, 
located abroad, and large numbers not related, now almost strangers, 
from long absence from the family mansion ; and that the festivities and 
exercises of the day, may bo blessed for the highest good of the town, and 
every family in it, is the warm desire and earnest prayer of, gentlemen, 
yours, most respectfully, 

JOSEPH RUSSELL. 






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